#ProjectFreePeriod is helping women step out of the sex trade, one-period at a time.
While almost every woman dreads her period days, here were women who looked forward to it. For whom their period was the only respite from the lives they were being forced to lead. These are the women of the sex trade.
For years, Stayfree has normalised periods in the lives of women. This time, we used periods to normalise the lives of commercial sex workers. And we thought this forced break could be a way to help these women cultivate their own #DreamsOfProgress.
Project Free Period is a vocational training programme created to equip these women with skills that could help them sustain themselves outside of the sex trade. While finding relevant skills was the easy part, the challenge was to condense them into 3-day training modules. So that the 3 days of their periods could be turned into 3 days of learning.
And finally, in January, with the help of local anti-trafficking NGO Prerana, the first edition of #ProjectFreePeriod was launched in the red light district of Mumbai. The courses range from candle-making, embroidery, henna-art, soft-toy making to a basic beautician course. The Project now runs through the month and has a consistently expanding curriculum of skills. So much so that the women are finding ways to make more time to learn and hone new skills. Through recruitment drives on social media, the initiative has also put together a database of volunteers to keep scaling up this project.
To know how you can help, do watch our video.
PV Sindhu vs Periods. Who wins?
Sapne periods ke liye nahin rukte! PV Sindhu never let anything stop her from achieving her #DreamsOfProgress, not even her periods. Stayfree Extra Large with up to 12-hour protection enables girls everywhere to go forth and achieve their #DreamsOfProgress
A pledge to pursue #DreamsOfProgress
Watch the inspiring PV Sindhu as she visits her school in Hyderabad and encourages young girls by taking a pledge to follow their #DreamsOfProgress
You can make their period count.
Our students are growing, so is our demand for trainers. We’d like to take Project Free Period to every woman in the sex trade. In order to make this happen, we need your time and participation.
Helping women out of the sex trade. One Per…
One would think no woman looks forward to her period, but there are 20 million women in India who do. These are the commercial sex workers of India, for whom periods are the only days when they aren’t forced to work. Project Free Periods helps women in the sex trade learn a new trade, on their period days.
