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Binti

Binti was the first period charity registered in the UK and India. We have a mission to provide menstrual dignity to all girls, all over the world. This means facilitating access to pads to ensure menstrual health, educating girls about what menstruation is and what they can expect from it, and dispelling stigma, taboos, myths and negative perceptions around menstruation.

Binti is headquartered in the UK, and currently runs projects in India, Kenya, The Gambia and the U.S., as well as at home in the UK.

Our mantra and work ethic focuses on:

Availability - Menstrual pads should be available to all women. This could mean training local women to produce their own menstrual pads using sustainable materials; it could be providing funds for impoverished communities to purchase menstrual pads, or it might mean increasing the availability of menstrual products in food banks and homeless shelters.

Affordability - Menstrual health should not be costly to women. We want to provide affordable access to pads for women in their local communities, either by raising funds to provide pads directly to impoverished communities or by helping them to make their own in a safe, hygienic way. We continue to fight the so-called ‘Tampon Tax’ around the globe, and strongly believe that menstrual products should not be classed as luxury items.

Awareness - Through our educational programmes, we want to empower girls to understand their bodies and know what to expect from their menstrual cycles, as well as to fight taboos and stigma surrounding menstruation. We also teach boys to explore their own puberty whilst teaching them about girls too. One by one, we hope to eliminate myths that have been carried across generations and bring about change.

We believe that Binti is bringing a menstrual revolution. We want a world in which every girl has menstrual dignity. Period.

WHAT DOES BINTI DO?

There are three core aspects to our menstrual dignity mission:

  • Access - making sure that girls have access to pads. Whether we’re teaching women in India how to make their own pads, or helping vulnerable women in the UK to access pads, we believe that all girls deserve dignity through access to adequate menstrual products.

  • Education - teaching girls what menstruation is, and what to expect from it. No girl should fear that she is diseased or bleeding to death when she gets her first period. Every girl deserves the dignity of self-knowledge and understanding of her body.

  • De-stigmatisation - breaking taboos and stigmas around menstruation. In many parts of the world, it is believed that a woman is cursed, dirty or promiscuous when she has her period. Even in the UK, menstruation is often seen as dirty and shameful. Why do we shove menstrual products up our sleeves in office environments when we know that periods are a natural human process? We want to change this, and ensure that girls and boys, men and women, all know that there is dignity in menstruation.

Binti currently works in India, Africa, the UK and the US to achieve these goals. Whilst our mission varies somewhat depending on the cultural context, access, education and de-stigmatisation are essential all over the world.

We know we can’t change the whole world over night, but we also know that changing the life of one girl will go on to change the lives of many, many more as she spreads her knowledge, understanding and message of dignity. That’s why at Binti, we work for one girl, and for every girl.