SuSanA News - MH Day Edition - 2022   
 
Let's celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Day!
#MHDay2022 #WeAreCommitted
Dear SuSanA members and friends,

Menstrual Hygiene (MH) Day is around the corner!

The MH Day takes place every year on May 28th or 28.05. – numbers which stand for the average number of days in a menstruation cycle and the average number of days of the actual menstruation respectively.

Menstrual health and Hygiene (MHH) is far more than dealing with periods and access to safe hygiene. It is key to unlock positive outcomes across the lifecycle of those who menstruate, contributing at the same time to a positive social and economic development.

To catalyse progress, #MHDay2022 is now shifting from calling for action to committing to action. Using the hashtag #WeAreCommitted, organisations all over the world will start to publicly announce their concrete commitments towards creating a world where no one is held back because they menstruate.

In this MH Day Special SuSanA News Edition, you will find inspiring contributions from the global MH Day Secretariat and our SuSanA partners and members, who are active in the field of MHH.

In addition to celebrating MH Day, we are happy to announce the 32nd SuSanA meeting, which will take place on the 20th of August. We are excited to welcome you back online this year and look forward to making this event very special – stay tuned!

Enjoy exploring this special edition of our SuSanA News and celebrate MH Day 2022 with us!

Yours sincerely,
Arne, Alexandra, Maren, Daphne and Rebecca
on behalf of the SuSanA Secretariat
Get your campaign materials now!
WASH United / MH Day Secretariat
This year’s set of MH Day campaign materials from WASH United has everything you need for your MH Day activities. The amazing and diverse set of campaign motifs are freely available and cover themes including stigma, access to education and products, and Vision 2030. For social media, each motif is available in different sizes for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and is available in Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese. In addition, you can also find banners, posters, and speech-bubble templates.
Use the Menstruation Bracelet to engage with your stakeholders
WASH United / MH Day Secretariat
Symbols have the power to catalyse awareness and action: the Menstruation Bracelet is a global symbol for menstruation consisting of 28 elements (average length of a cycle), five of them are red (average length of a period). Whether you aim to engage political decision makers, your social media followers, influencers, or your organisation’s leadership and team members, it’s easy to use the bracelet as part of your organisation’s MH Day campaign!
Share your MH Day events
WASH United / MH Day Secretariat
Are you planning an online or in-person event for Menstrual Hygiene Day 2022? Add it to the official event listing on the MH Day website so that other organisations, individuals, and the media can find out about it.

Remember to use the campaign hashtags #MHDay2022 and #WeAreCommitted in all of your posts, so that we and other MH Day partners can find, like and share your posts! And please tag the MH Day social channels on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Feel free to get in touch with your questions, ideas, and feedback via info@menstrualhygieneday.org
Contribute to the next version of our key knowledge product
Menstrual Hygiene Management: Relevant, Intersectoral and on the Rise
SuSanA is collecting new resources, key documents, and guidance on the topic of MHH! For that we would need your feedback to update our compilation of MHH resources “Menstrual Hygiene Management: Relevant, Intersectoral and on the Rise”. Feel free to share with us any new MHH related publications, papers, films, podcasts, and many more on the Forum and send us your ideas and suggestions via info@susana.org. Thank you very much in advance for your support!
Promoting Menstrual Hygiene Management activities globally
Sanitation for Millions (S4M)
Across the globe, Sanitation for Millions (S4M) is committed to promote safe menstrual health and hygiene management by overcoming socio-cultural barriers and extending inclusive access to safe menstrual hygiene management. During MH Day 2022, S4M will realise various activities. In Pakistan, a week-long awareness campaign in schools in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and a provincial event led by the MHM working group in Balochistan will take place. In Uganda, different social media campaigns and MHM walks followed by public advocacy events will be organized in cooperation with schools and partners, amongst other activities. In Jordan, S4M in cooperation with UNICEF and the Royal Health Awareness Society, organizes awareness sessions in Makani Centers on MHM from both a religious and a health perspective.
Is menstrual health and hygiene the missing link in adopting a true feminist development cooperation policy?
Sanitation for Millions (S4M) & Population Services International (PSI)
Women, girls, non-binary and transgender people across the world deal with MHH on a regular basis. This topic transcends race, class, culture, and religion. Population Services International (PSI) - Europe and Sanitation for Millions (GIZ) organized a webinar which took place on the 11th of May to discuss MHH posing the important question: Is MHH the missing link in adopting a true feminist development cooperation policy?

Experts from different fields, who are engaged in MHH, shared their experiences and the challenges they face, such as the lack of investment or MHH being a taboo topic. Case studies of good practices in Ethiopia and Pakistan were also presented during the webinar. Furthermore, the panellists inspired all participants to be committed and to give MHH the importance it deserves by sharing their knowledge with conviction and underlining the huge potential for action in this field.
Breaking the Taboo of Menstrual Hygiene
Online Exhibition 'Invisible Water'
The GIZ Sector Programme Water Policy - Innovation for Resilience launched a multimedia exhibition 'Invisible Water', which displays the unseen, unrecognized, and often forgotten facets of water and sanitation. Based on individual portraits taken in Bolivia, Niger, Zambia, Pakistan, Uganda, and Jordan, it narrates how the protagonists are finding feasible solutions to water and sanitation challenges and accelerating action for SDG 6 – with the support of German development cooperation and partners.

Dive into the story nr. 5 'Breaking the Taboo of Menstrual Hygiene' with Rehana, a 15 year old student in Pakistan. You will learn about the difficulties Rehana, and her fellow students are facing due to lack of appropriate WASH services and sanitary facilities at school, and the general stigma around menstruation. The story highlights the different measures and activities undertaken to overcome those difficulties and the impacts they have on Rehana’s daily life.
Managing Menstruation
Know your options
The 'Managing Menstruation: Know Your Options' tool provides information on the full range of safe self-care options for managing menstrual bleeding and pain, including information on how contraception and menstruation interact. The tool provides evidence-based and unbiased information that supports users to make well informed choices that best meet their needs and preferences.
Monitor Menstrual Health and Hygiene
Technical guidance for national monitoring
With collaborators from around the world, a group of MHH experts from Columbia University, the Burnet Institute, Emory University, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Save the Children, and WaterAid have developed a Priority list of Indicators for Girls’ Menstrual Health and Hygiene: Technical Guidance for National Monitoring. These recommended indicators monitor MHH for adolescent girls across priority domains and are intended to enable comparability across countries and over time. #MonitorMHH, #menstrualhealth and #menstruationmatters
India's most affordable sanitary pad vending machine and sustainable menstrual curriculum for public schools
Menstrual Hygiene Friendly Spaces (MHFS)
Last year, Menstrual Hygiene Friendly Spaces (MHFS) designed India’s most affordable non-electric sanitary pad vending machine ‘Pad Bank’ which costs only 20-pound and dispenses biodegradable sanitary pads at no cost. The machine is environment-friendly, has a capacity of 25 pads and bridges the gap of affordability and accessibility of menstrual products at all work, education, and public spaces.

As of today, the machines are supporting over 50,000 menstruators from underserved and tribal school with free biodegradable pads, helping them to continue their education. As part of the “Menstrual Hygiene Friendly Spaces” initiative, a curriculum on sustainable menstrual hygiene was launched, with elements of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, in over 150 schools to raise awareness on best practices in menstrual hygiene management, sustainable menstrual products and how boys and men can play a supportive role in this process.
Stay tuned for our 32nd SuSanA Meeting
On Saturday August 20th we are planning an exciting day of learning and exchange at the SuSanA 32nd virtual Meeting. We will make sure to find the right balance between insightful sessions, interactive discussions, and possibilities for networking. All this in a compact one-day format, so as not to interfere too much with our daily work. So, mark your calendar, spread the word, and stay tuned for more detailed information.
» Check out the event page for any new updates
SuSanA at World Water Week 2022
Online and in Stockholm, Sweden (23 August - 1 September 2022)
SuSanA will be present at the World Water Week 2022 in Stockholm and we are excited to share with you that we are planning to have an on-site SuSanA booth and host two side events for female water and sanitation professionals in cooperation with the Women in Water Diplomacy Network, Women for Water Partnership, the Community of Women in Water, Women in Water and Sanitation Network, African Women Sanitation Professionals Network, Global Water Partnership and others!

- August 29th to September 1st: visit our on-site SuSanA booth, to meet connect and exchange as well as supporting us in advocating for sustainable sanitation as key contributors of the SDGs

- August 29th from 8.30 to 10am CEST (venue tbc): join us for a morning coffee & skills development with women water and sanitation colleagues to learn, share, get inspired and inspire

- August 29th in the evening (time and venue tbc): Let’s get our World Water Week Networking skills ready and let’s meet and mingle. Networking is key to advance in the water sector. We are excited to start the conference week by inviting you to a women-only drinks reception.

Stay tuned for more information! You can also reach us at info@susana.org to share with us your planned sessions that we and the community should not miss.
SuSanA’s Working Groups Updates
New co-leads for WG3 and 10
We are happy to introduce three new co-leads for the SuSanA Working Group 3 'Climate Mitigation and Adaptation' and the Working Group 10 'Operation, maintenance and sustainable services'.

WG10 co-leads: Ajith Edathoot is a Research Associate at HafenCity University Hamburg and Bernadette Dzifa Agbefu is a consultant at International Water Management Institute

WG03 co-lead: Martin Kerres is a technical advisor at GIZ Germany

Welcome to the SuSanA team! We are looking forward to the collaboration. Check at the respective SuSanA WG page to consult their full bio and don’t hesitate to engage with them on the Forum.
Sanitation is part of the solution!
Celebrating Indo-German Development Cooperation around the Indian Governments “Clean India Mission”
We are pleased to announce the launch of the new publication on India’s urban sanitation journey, showcasing the contributions of the Indo-German development cooperation on improving urban sanitation over the past ten years. We hope that this publication is useful to all passionate water and sanitation professionals, urban planners, policymakers, and anyone who intends to engage in the ambitious task of improving urban sanitation, public health, and the well-being of all.
Viva con Agua: WASH! The board game
Let the games begin!
Calling serious and not-so-serious board gamers for a test play on a digital simulator!

The idea for the WASH! Game was born during the pandemic. The concept was to find a fun way to orient people remotely on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) using a systems approach. Its objective is to focus firstly on fun and engaging players, instead of teaching technical subjects. This makes it appropriate to a wide range of players- from professionals to students.

We are preparing the game for publishing and are looking for test players for the 7th reiteration. If you have a couple hours and are looking for a good time, please sign-up on the link below.

If you are interested to learn more, please contact Belinda Abraham at b.abraham@vivaconagua.org for more info.
Humanitarian Sanitation Knowledge Hub (SaniHub) project
The Humanitarian Sanitation Hub is an online platform which will provide a co-created, comprehensive, structured, curated, and moderated open-source knowledge and exchange space for the global humanitarian WASH community. In addition, the Hub will include a helpdesk to directly support and facilitate rapid and high-quality planning, technology selection and implementation of humanitarian sanitation interventions in the field and to facilitate the build-up of an active community of practice. The project is financially supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and currently being implemented by a consortium consisting of BORDA, CAWST, Eawag, IHE Delft, Netherlands Red Cross and Solidarités international, which is led by German Toilet Organization.

If you would like to get actively involved and get up-to-date information on the Hub and its further development you can sign up for a corresponding mailing list.
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Imprint
The secretariat of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance is located at:
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 36 + 40
53113 Bonn, Germany

info@susana.org