Spotlight on NFCC

Nepal Fertility Care Centre are an exciting organisation who are doing amazing things in Nepal in the fields of reproductive health and menstrual hygiene management.

The organisation has been going strong for 28 years. Our host Pema, the current director of NFCC, is an inspiring lady. She apologises for the current state of the office, “I’m sorry we just had all our field staff here and the place was so busy and hectic, I couldn’t even fit in my office, it seems so quiet now”. Even though there are 5 or 6 staff members between the 3 or 4 rooms/offices who all seem pretty busy, I can’t imagine what its like when its full. It’s interesting to see inside the hub of a well established NGO in Nepal, it’s based in what seems to be a fairly well off area of Kathmandu, almost in Patan (what used to be a separate city but has now been swallowed by the sprawl of urbanisation). It’s an unassuming building in a residential area, hard to tell from the outside if it’s flats or offices.

Pema is full of energy and radiates her passion for her job from the minute of meeting her. She’s had her current role since 2008 and says the focus has changed since then to concentrate more on two of her favourite topics HPV preventative vaccines for adolescent girls and menstrual hygiene management. She says she could talk all day on the topic of MHM. We’re introduced to Niranjan, the coordinator of the menstrual hygiene programme, and guess what he’s a man! How fantastic to have a male advocate of menstrual hygiene, Niranjan is just as passionate about MHM as Pema, although a little more reserved.

I introduce the work of no more taboo by showing the pair some of the products we sell including a Fleurcup menstrual cup and an Honour Your Flow washable pad. “I think its awesome! Putting the resources [from sales] into projects is such a sustainable idea”, “As soon as I saw the name ‘no more taboo’ I immediately went on your website. Noone focuses on the social restrictions, especially in south Asia, everyone is keen to work on the technical side but not with a focus on the taboos”. I’m flattered to hear such a well established organisation likes what we do.

NFCC are the experts on ‘Chaupaddi’, the traditional Nepali practice of isolation of menstruating women and girls, they have recently completed a comprehensive study supported by USAID on the topic including all the work conducted by both public and private (NGO) sector organisations. NFCC are keen on collaboration, for all the organisations to work together “We’re all fighting for the same cause”. Pema shows us photos from their trip making this amazing documentary on the topic. She shows us how one girl must walk a different path back to her village from her friends because she is menstruating. How some of the women refused to acknowledge a menstruating girl, asking Pema to sit between them and the girl and to pass her food so they didn’t have to touch her. “What they didn’t know was I was menstruating the whole time on the trip! I didn’t tell them they had no idea”. She showed us a photo of a lady who spends part of her time in the city (where she does not practice chaupaddi) but as soon as she comes back to the village and is on her period she is sent to her tiny menstrual hut (which she can barely fit in).

“Almost every home in Nepal practices menstrual restrictions, even in Kathmandu. Women can’t go to the temple, can’t enter the kitchen. It’s not just chauppadi but no one tells you these are restrictions, its just socialised that way, you don’t even realise”. She talks of how many of her professional, well educated friends, modern Nepali women still won’t enter the kitchen on their period they joke about how it’s the only time they get to have 4 days off cooking, Pema points out that means 26 days of the month they feel obligated to do the cooking.

Men play a big part in their 20 year strategy around MHM, yes I said 20 years, we never said this would be a quick process! For our rural communities, step one is to get menstruating women to be accepted as normal people, then accepted into the home, then the kitchen, then the temple. This year they are working on putting the MEN in menstruation. They hope to empower men to help their families by providing MHM infrastructure, Niranjan says, “Men believe their role is to protect their families, to provide for them and keep them safe, we’re working to get them thinking about what menstruation is? How they can help their wives and daughters during this time, what can they provide for them?” You have to empower women and men together, what’s the point in empowering a woman to ask her husband for money for pads or to provide a toilet for her daughters if her husband has not been empowered to be able to respond to these requests.

NFCC are also keen to change the policy landscape in Nepal, like many countries around the world they are trying to stop tax on sanitary products. Many say that the restrictions in the country, have come from the Hindu religion, that it is said in the scriptures that women are dirty or impure during their period. There is even a national holiday here where women are given the day off to cleanse themselves, in case they have mis-practised any of the restrictions (like going in the kitchen or touching a relative) whilst menstruating. NFCC are hoping to get this holiday changed, they say it is ingraining the idea that women are ‘untouchable’ during their period. They even have support from a Hindu priest and academic.

I’m so fascinated to learn more on the taboos in the country and to hear about their amazing work. What an inspiration! I honestly think we could have talked for days on MHM, as Pema said “We’re all part of a revolution. Across the world, its all being linked up and things are changing!”