28th
Elizabeth Scharpf
I’ve been heading over to sites like TEDblog, NYTimes etc and using them as an intellectual palate refresher, to remove the guilty aftertaste left by some of the gossip blogs I read. I always find people who are genuinely inspirational receiving the acknowledgment and accolades they truly deserve. These people are always innovative, entrepreneurial and world-changing in some way.
One such woman is Elizabeth Scharpf, Founder and Chief Instigating Officer of SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises), who I found via We Do This, We Do That.
What Elizabeth and her team are doing is truly, truly wonderful. You know how sucky periods are, right? Imagine having your period while living in third world conditions with limited or no access to sanitary protection. OK. Well, all my stupid first world problems have just been put into perspective. SHE aims to redress this issue by amending “females’ lack of access to affordable, quality, eco-friendly, sanitary products and services for menstruation”.
I am totally and utterly touched by this endeavour. I’ve suffered dysmenorrhea (Wikipedia link) since I first started my period. Managing this pain sometimes required me to take up to 14 high strength across-the-counter painkillers per day for at least the first three to four days. You can imagine what that did to my liver! Combined with heavy blood loss (sorry, if there are squeamish people reading this), which resulted in low iron levels I was, essentially, physically ineffective for one week a month. Nothing catastrophic ever resulted from this; chores would simply be left undone, social engagements curtailed, I would still be at work but probably working at around 50% capacity. To be honest I’ve always viewed this with a bit of a victim mentality. Poor me, suffering so much, so frequently. It’s so hard.
Yes. Having a couch to recline on, access to medicine and a husband to pick up the slack is really doing it hard. You may reach through the screen and slap me if you wish, I wouldn’t blame you.
The New York Times Magazine focused on the theme of Saving The World’s Women and notes in this article that, “traditionally, the status of women was seen as a ‘soft’ issue — worthy but marginal”. Fortunately this view is being replaced. “The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they’re the solution.”
On a personal level, I love SHE’s solution. I can’t imagine having to go through what I do each month while living in extreme poverty. I also love that SHE enables women to work their way out of poverty by bringing a sliver of relief to other women. Supportive and nurturing!
I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with this information, this newfound enlightenment, but I’m sure with more reading, more questioning and more soul searching, something will come up.
The really lovely profile pic of Ms Scharpf you see up there is courtesy of Why Do You Do What You Do.
