Hello Everyone! Welcome to another interview featuring Sia Shete. She is here on behalf of her NGO LAL. N: Let's start by knowing a little about this NGO. Tell us about LAL. S: Firstly thank you, Nirmayee for having me here. I am glad to have you as a friend and thank you for this opportunity. LAL is an NGO I started on my birthday on the 19th of April. This idea struck me when I was scrolling through Instagram and I came across this post which said: "Only 18% of women in India have access to menstrual pads and tampons." If this is the statics in our country, then why can't I change it and why can't more women be accessible to pads? LAL aims to educate underprivileged women in rural and urban areas about the menstrual cycle. We will visit their villages personally and carry the pads with us and educate and give them pads. N: Wow Sia! That is amazing. I like the way you stumbled upon a post and took such a big step. Of course, change starts with yourself. Moving on to the next question, What is your goal at LAL? S: Honestly, I am not doing this for fame or anything. I am doing this for one purpose which is underprivileged rural women get the sanitary hygiene that they need. My goal is that I want each every village or place in India to have sanitary equipment, that is pad or tampons. I want them to be safe and healthy. There is a disease that can also spread due to the used cloth during your periods. My mission is to supply pad to every woman. N: Yes Sia! You will be able to accomplish your goal and I am so proud of you for taking this step. A lot of places it is considered that a woman is not "pure" during her periods. What is your take on that? S: Yes, there is a mindset and that is true. Periods give strength to women and during this time she becomes stronger than she was earlier. It considered impure as people are conservative and the mindset is still not developed compared to the people in urban areas. Periods come out of your vagina. Yes, it is hard for them to speak about it. Their minds have been flooded with things like women should keep their problems to themselves. Some rural villages are modernizing now and women are using pads but words like vagina and periods and it is extremely taboo. N: Well said, Sia! We should modernize and I agree with you. I follow your page: LAL NGO. What is your team consists of? S: Right now the team only consists of me, who is the founder and two of my friends. Aarna Reddy and Paakhi Mukherjee make the core team. We have shortlisted the volunteers as well. N: One this note here is the last question! What is the future of LAL? I mean after the corona outbreak S: I have my weekend home, so we are going to go there. We are going to take the pads with us. Recently on my 16th birthday, I got money from my family so I will put that money into this project. We will gather women at a particular place and talk to them, share our experiences with them. We can't expect the rural women to change so quickly. N: Wow! Thank you so much for being here on the behalf of your NGO and best of luck to your NGO. S: Thank you so much, Nirmayee.
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Follow LAL: https://www.instagram.com/lal_ngo/