Can You Hear Us?

Soumya Dabriwal: Menstrual Hygiene, Social Impact and Entrepreneurship

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Episode notes

In today’s episode Can You Hear Us?,  is joined by Soumya Dabriwal; menstrual hygiene advocate, social entrepreneur and Founder of Project Baala - a menstrual health solutions provider with the sole aim of ending period poverty and illiteracy. Since 2018, Baala has provided 2.4  million reusable pads, conducted over 6,500 awareness workshops benefiting 800,000 menstruators across 4 countries around the globe and 26 states in India as well as generating income for an estimated 250 women as women’s health advocates. Join us to listen to Soumya walk us through the project’s three pillars (1) Awareness, (2) Sustainability and (3) Livelihood generation, her experience as a Ted X Speaker and Social Entrepreneur, and much more!

Guest spotlight: https://projectbaala.com/teams/soumya-dabriwal/
Links to other resources to spotlight shared by Soumya: Case Study, Warwick, UNDP

“For a lot of us in the world we see  [menstruation] as biological phenomenon, but there is still a huge population where menstruation is a deterrent to economic productivity, to education [...] that’s the main inspiration: how can we maximise the potential of young girls and women in workspaces and educational spaces” - Soumya on the origins of Project Baala

“The model came from a very bottoms up approach, everything that we do today in the organisation, is not something that we came up with while sitting in an office space or getting into a board room to discuss what are possible solutions or what could work. In fact it was being exactly where we needed the impact to be, so being in those communities, being in those slums, being in those villages or everything that we are building on as solutions” - Soumya on Project’s Baala’s model

“You do not have to be extraordinary to do extraordinary things” - Soumya’s TedX quote and philosophy