Combatting Menstrual Stigma Through Female-Centred Permaculture Garden

In 2022, Girls of Tomorrow Foundation received funding from Global Affairs Canada to conduct an innovative menstrual health research project.

This innovative solution will test a Female-Centered Permaculture Garden as a unique and effective way of combatting menstrual stigma and increasing female empowerment. Local experts will teach permaculture to participants through a female lens to address girls’ menstrual health and hygiene needs. Each crop planted will be tied to lessons focused on female health, anatomy, and experience. Male and female participants will also learn how to create reusable menstrual pads using banana fibre grown from the gardens—providing a more sustainable and empowering way of ensuring females have access to supplies and undermining the narrative that menstrual supplies should be hidden. Girls of Tomorrow’s objective is to improve girls’ psychological health (increased self-esteem and confidence), physical health (increased nutrition), school attendance rates and rates of social participation, all of which will increase their ability to participate equally in society.