The Middflow Project · Lived experiences
When menstrual pain and heavy bleeding make it difficult to leave home.
For Vicky, the second and third days of her period can be particularly difficult.
She experiences pain and heavy bleeding so severe that she sometimes cannot move around or leave home. Managing those days is not simply a matter of having a product available.
On one occasion, the situation became so difficult that she nearly had to sit in a bucket of water to try to manage the flow and pain.
Her experience points to a part of menstrual health that is often left out of conversations focused only on product access.
Menstrual products are important. But products alone do not address severe pain or heavy bleeding. These experiences also deserve to be heard, understood and taken seriously.
What Vicky’s experience asks us to consider
Access to menstrual products is one part of menstrual health. Information, appropriate health support and the ability to describe what is happening in one’s body matter too.
Help make practical support possible
The Middflow Project is raising R30,000 to provide 50 women with menstrual products and personal-care essentials for five months.
R120 is the average monthly support allocation per woman. It is an average, not a fixed amount for every individual. Allocations may vary according to need.
Every contribution helps move the appeal forward. You can also share it with someone who may be able to help.
Contribute to the appeal Back to CommunityVicky is a pseudonym. This account is based on an experience shared with The Middflow Project. Publication is subject to appropriate consent and safeguarding.
The Middflow Project · NPO 292-415 · Equity by Design.
