Interview with Dr. Garima, founder of SHE Organization

'2019-08-04 10:35:24', '2019-08-04 10:35:24',

What would you like to tell us about yourself?

I am Dr Garima Shrestha from Kathmandu , Nepal  . I completed my MBBS from Manipal Teaching hospital , Pokhara in 2018. I am currently working as medical  officer at Manmohan Cardio Thoracic Vascular and transplant Centre ( Teaching Hospital) ,Maharajgunj Kathmandu . It’s been few months since I have started this campaign. I had this concept since I was doing my internship at my hospital Manipal Pokhara , where females from different background used to visit hospital with poor menstrual hygiene and it’s consequences, which made me realise if I could do something which could improve their hygiene and every woman could afford sanitary pads . 

You are successfully running a campaign combating taboos related to Menstrual issues and reusable sanitary pads. How and where did you come up with the idea for this campaign? 

When I knew about Chhaupadi Pratha, a trend which is forced to follow by Nepali  women during menstruation , where females are isolated , they are forced to stay at cattle shed. They are not allowed to enter kitchen , temples , they are not allowed to go to school, works , they are not allowed to consume healthy nutritious diet, they are not allowed to take shower, they are not allowed to touch their brothers, father during menstruation. As I heard about it where people lack knowledge regarding menstruation and menstrual hygiene and being involved in medical field I saw many females not knowing about menstruation, sanitary pads. I had very bad feeling and thought if I could do something and I shared my experiences with my parents and with their support we are successfully running this campaign combating taboos related to menstruation and Reusable sanitary pads .

Please tell us  more about SHE organisation. What is it all about? What challenges do you face regularly?

SHE - it is purely volunteering organisation as SHE itself means a female and SHE - S stands for sanitary pads (Reusable ), H stands for Healthy and Handmade , E stands for Environment friendly. it’s diffucult to make people understand about eco-friendly because we human don’t care about environment , we care about our satisfaction, In Reusable sanitary pads we have to focus on sterilisation technique and the material we have choosen , healthy , handmade , Reusbale and Eco/friendly so if we give small effort , it’s good for us and good for environment because this Reusable Sanitary pads are made of 100% cotton material as we haven’t used non-biodegradable products like Plastics and artificial fragrances.

Being from a medical background myself and taking out time for travel on a regular basis, i know how hard it gets to take time out and follow the heart. How do you manage time for passion and professional life?

What I feel is, if you have interest you can manage time and can balance your life . The schedule of doctors life is really hectic where we have duties for 24 hours and we don’t even get post duty off but during weekends and during non-duty day I travel, I hangout with friends, because social life is also important and family and friends are equally important .

Doctor by choice or by chance ? What future plans do you have in this field?

Doctor by choice. I am always fascinated by medicine and humanity. I have always dreamt of being a doctor since I knew what ambition meant and worked for it. I have further plans to do MD to make my career strong and specialise in a particular subject so I could gain more knowledge regarding that subject and further plans to help patients .

As safe menstrual practices and availability of sanitary pads is a global issue. How  do you plan to spread awareness on a global scale with your organisation. Do you have global ambassadors for the same?

The taboo or stigma of mesntruation is not only followed in Nepal , its followed worldwide where people lack knowledge regarding what is menstruation and how to maintain menstrual hygiene. First of all I want to spread awareness in Nepal and really want people to stop following the trend Chhaupadi Pratha and globally people should have knowledge regarding mesntruation and Reusable Sanitary pads to think about future by thinking about environment  and to think about healthy habits. 

Your interview will get published in India and we believe will reach a wide range of audience. What message would you like to convey to all of them?

India being our neighboring country , we are really helped by the friendly act of India economically as well as politically . And as I heard about menstruation. And menstrual hygiene as far as I know most areas of India still have this trend where people lack menstrual hygiene what I feel is if we spread awareness and work for it , menstrual hygiene can be improved . Miss World Manushi Chillar worked for Sanitary pads distribution which is really very good initiative. So every people in their area should spread awareness , because it will take more time for a single person to reach every single region of their country . Thus , People who are aware about menstruation should spread awareness in their area, because every single drop counts . I hope if Nepal and India work together for it , it will be more effective because both of our countries have this trend during menstruation where females follow unhygienic practices during menstruation .  

We finish the interview and you find a lottery ticket that ends up winning $100 million. What would you do? 

If I find a lottery ticket of $ 100 million , genuinely I would spend for social service. Because  the money that I win from lottery would be as similar as of free cost so I would spend for social service. But if it was money that I had earned from my hardwork obviously would have love for my money and I would have spent for myself first and then to social service.So the money if I get it from lottery I would fully 100% donate in social service , I would have opened small hospitals in areas where clinical services haven’t reached such areas and spread awareness to people regarding diseases and consequences of not treating diseases.  

Apart from this, what else do you like to do in your free time? 

Apart from my profession , I love traveling , I love to know different cultures , I had played in few Nepali music videos , I hangout with friends , I read novels sometimes. 

That's amazing!! Anything else that you would like to share with us?

I would like to Thank  you & Yayavar Club for featuring my issues. I am thankful for all this support and I hope you guys will join me make my campaign successful  by spreading awareness in your area as well by letting people know about Reusable sanitary pads and menstrual  hygiene. As  "I alone cannot cross river , but I can cast a stone across water to create a ripple", Join me and help make this campaign successful. Join me to help females better place to live in by completely eradicating this trend .