Beyond celebrating women’s resilience during International Women’s Day like last Saturday, there are also many issues limiting access to basic amenities, rights, and privileges of women. One such is the lack of period dignity for women.
In an exclusive interview with the former General Manager of Radio Nigeria One, 103.5 FM and Lead Consultant YellowBloom Consulting, Ms Funke Treasure, she spoke about using media to campaign for hygiene and period dignity.
How has the transition from media to social advocacy been for you?
People think that I pivoted away from the media entirely. No, I did not. I am combining what I do. I saw a gap in the advocacy for menstrual health, and I saw that the media hadn’t been paying critical attention to it. So, I decided to plug into the menstrual health campaign as I was consumed by the passion to do that. I started working on what is called social enterprise. It is looking at a social issue in an entrepreneurial way.
I am still very much in the media. The Sanitary Pad campaign is a media campaign. That is why it is called the Sanitary Pad Media Campaign. What I have done is to use the media to amplify the issue of period poverty and use my visibility as a media professional to also draw visibility to the issue of menstrual health and hygiene.
On reproductive and sexual rights, I have a radio drama serial on menstrual health, and I have a podcast, both an audio podcast and a TV podcast, running on the same issue. In the past, we published newsletters. These are all media outlets to keep talking about the issue of menstrual health. I still do my training programmes when I am invited and the ones I can do on my own. In the last four years. I still teach, train, and practice journalism among other things.
What are the goals of the campaigns you are doing?
Firstly, we want to normalise period conversations. We want it to be that women and men can discuss period issues without inhibitions, without feeling ashamed or overly self-conscious. We want a comprehensive menstrual health policy in Nigeria that would consider those with disabilities and all kinds of period conditions. Especially the one that gives women a period-friendly working atmosphere. We want infrastructure that will enable women to menstruate with dignity. We want water in schools and communities.
So we are asking for period dignity. We want our traditional rulers to take a look at the infrastructure in the rural areas and begin to ask politicians the right questions. To begin to demand that politicians do the right thing by providing water in the domains. We want menstrual leave. Menstrual leave is not a competition with the men. This is asking men to consider us as we carry in our body humanity. We are the ones who bring multiplicity to the human race. We are asking for tax removal on sanitary pads. Why would condoms have no tax on them, but pads, have?
What are the challenges of the campaigns on menstrual hygiene?
Our biggest challenge is getting funding for what we do. The day we get a grant, I will feel accomplished. I have achieved all we achieved having to sacrifice a lot with the limited staff, mainly volunteers. Including sacrificing my comfort many times. I can’t tell you I have lived in comfort in the last four years. When I make money doing other things, I invest it into realising my goal in the media sanitary pad campaign.
But, I am also grateful for the immense goodwill I get in the form of support and partnerships. I am also grateful for companies that have pushed us forward with the gifts they have given us. And I am grateful for my friends in the media.