By Damiete Braide
Many things in the modern world are taken for granted, especially in affluent communities and developed nations. One such commodity is so integral to human health it’s hard to imagine a life without it: access to safe menstrual products.
“Menstrual health is the cornerstone of women’s health – it’s that simple,” said Emmanuel Osemota, a US-based Nigerian epidemiologist working at the intersection of medical outreach, human trafficking prevention, and community engagement in Nigeria and South Florida. “It’s not only the foundation of a healthy life, but an essential component of freedom, liberty, and equity.”
In some parts of the world, menstruation is a taboo topic. Young women go to extremes to hide it. Edo State, Nigeria, is one such place. In this community, it’s too common for girls to risk their safety and sacrifice their futures to avoid the shame of menstruation.
Enter the Emmanuel Osemota Foundation (EOF), an international nonprofit organisation utilising grassroots tactics to address medical inequities in vulnerable regions worldwide.
“No matter what our organisation can achieve in Nigeria, our impact cannot be fully felt without solving core issues like safe menstruation,” said Osemota, founder and President of EOF. “It truly is a guiding principle in everything we do.”
Menstrual health has long been a core function of the EOF, which made a recent partnership with a student group at the University of South Florida Tampa especially exciting for the organisation. Earlier this year, Conscious Cycles approached the EOF with a vision for international aid focused on safe access to sanitary products.
Here’s why the EOF was so excited to partner with Conscious Cycles and why the collective impact matters.
Conscious Cycles and the EOF: a Perfect Partnership
The EOF is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit in the United States and Nigeria, yet centralises much of its efforts in Edo State, Nigeria, through a network of on-the-ground relationships. This transnational system enables Osemota and his team to drum up support for crucial causes in the States while transporting aid directly to those who need it.
This system lent itself perfectly to a plan devised by Conscious Cycles. As a part of a Women & Social Justice course, the young women in the group reached out to the EOF in the Spring of 2023 to see if the organisation could distribute supplies and funds collected by Conscious Cycles.
The EOF was thrilled to accept, and the University drive launched a few weeks later. In just a few quick days, the Florida students gathered enough funds to purchase menstrual supplies for 300 female students.
The Impact Felt Around the World
When young girls in Edo State begin to menstruate, it’s common to stop attending school out of shame. When that choice is made, it not only inhibits their access to education – by staying home where they are not around guardians during the day, it also exposes them to the risk of sex trafficking.
The EOF calculates that the 300 girls supported by the Conscious Cycles drive can now attend a collective six additional months of school. That’s six months of education and six months of protection from sex trafficking.
“We at the foundation are so grateful for the women at Conscious Cycles, and we hope this experience has inspired them to continue fighting the fight for global access to safe menstrual products; with support like theirs, we know we can continue to make a difference,” concluded Osemota.