What is MENSY
Menstruation, empowerment and sustainability go hand in hand in creating a society where women, girls, and those who menstruate, feel confident, informed, and supported in managing their periods.
Empowerment means dismantling the stigma and obstacles surrounding menstruation, ensuring equitable access to knowledge, products, and resources. Menstruation is a social justice issue because access to menstrual products, education, and healthcare is not equally available to all. Providing everyone with the tools, information, and respect needed to manage their periods safely is a critical issue of gender equality, public health, and human rights.
Sustainability focuses on choosing period products that are environmentally friendly and reduce waste, such as reusable menstrual cups, pads, and organic options. Sustainability in menstruation involves making choices that minimise environmental impact while supporting long-term health and well-being.
Together, menstruation, empowerment and sustainability promote not only better health and dignity for individuals but also a cleaner, more equitable society for all.
To this end VOICE, along with seven other European environmental and eco feminist NGOs worked with young people and youth leaders to create the Menstruation: Empowerment and Sustainability manual. This manual is designed for use by youth leaders in any sector to increase menstrual literacy with a focus on empowerment and sustainability, leading to improved menstrual health in young people through activities and discussions in their youth setting. The manual includes information on menstruation, menstrual health, myths and taboos, menstruation and its relationship to the environment and health, and period product choices, as well as tools and resources to convey this information to young people.
You can download the manual here!
Download Manual for Youth Leaders
We also created a series of short animations, please feel free to use and share them!
See our video playlistProject Partners
Ireland
VOICE
Project Coordinators
O’Callaghan Platt
Cashman
Assistant
Croatia
Zelena akcija
Friends of the Earth Croatia
Mileusnić
Spain
REZERO
Vila
Beltran
UK
Women’s Environmental Network (WEN)
Lynn
Hungary
Greenzone
Domonyik
Csobay
Portugal
ZERO
Fonseca
Netherlands
Women Engaged for a Common Future (WECF)
Bouwman
Kovalenko
Van den Bossche
Ukraine
Zero Waste Lviv
Project Partners
Myronova
Project Financing: MENSY is financed by the ERASMUS plus programme (Programme Erasmus+ Action Type KA220-ADU - Cooperation partnerships in the field of youth) under the leadership of Leargas, the Irish national agency. The views expressed in this project are the sole responsibility of the project partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
Léargas manage national and international programmes in youth work, education and training including Erasmus+
