Meet the two UAE residents on a mission to stop Period Poverty across the world

Growing up for many women in this region and world over, menstruation or periods were words that were spoken in whispers. The social stigma around women’s monthly biological process was such that many would go to great measures to hide the same from family members and society.

For 25-year old UAE residents Tala (Lebanese) and Dalia (British-Iraqi), who met at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, what they bonded over was their eerily similar experiences growing up. Raised in the Middle East, from Arab backgrounds, they were aware that outside their households, periods were not to be mentioned in casual conversation. Both the girls got their periods at the young age of 10 and they, like many others, were diagnosed with PCOS and Dysmenorrhea – a painful experience that disrupts many young girls’ day-to-day lives. When they realised they were spending an enormous amount of money just on

sanitary items, medicines and femtech innovations such as TENS machines, to help them ease the pain, they started researching the topic of Period Poverty. What they discovered was not just alarming but life-changing in many ways, not just for them, but for women across the world caught up in poverty, many of whom could not even afford to buy basic protection during that time of the month.

According to Tala, it was alarming to learn that the cost of periods in a menstruating woman’s lifetime totals approximately Dh72,000. “It is so shocking that managing a basic biological human process is still considered a luxury in most countries.” Added to that they learnt that approximately 62 per cent of women who menstruate cannot even afford basic necessities to manage their periods and are left with unhygienic alternatives like rags, newspaper and toilet paper to stop the bleeding, leaving them vulnerable, both physically and emotionally and at risk of serious infections.

Tala says that Covid-19 has had a negative domino effect on the global economic situation leaving millions unemployed which has evidently exacerbated the issue of Period Poverty worldwide. She points out that a lot of the humanitarian funding that was delegated to issues like sexual and gender based violence and menstrual health to NGOs has been forcefully redirected by donors to fund other supplies.

“One country that has really struggled during this period is Lebanon. Not only is the country facing the devastating pandemic but it is also suffering from a severe economic and financial crisis leading to the tripling of the price of sanitary products.” This is before Beirut was faced with the most catastrophic explosion that has left a trail of devastation in its wake, killing 200+, injuring 5,000 and leaving 300,000 homeless. Period Poverty in Lebanon has reached an all time high; the situation is critical. As a result, Dorna has shifted focus and has taken an active effort on concentrating donations and support to Lebanon.

In June, Dorna launched a fundraiser campaign which managed to raise Dh11,000 to donate 940 boxes of sanitary products across Lebanon through their NGO partner, Ajialouna, to women in need and orphans at Dar Al Aytam.

Following the explosion, they approached a UAE company who donated a 40ft container of sanitary products and diapers to Dorna. “We have assembled the shipment to Beirut and are working on distributing to a number of NGOs in Lebanon. Our hearts go out to all the people impacted by the Beirut explosion and we really hope that we have helped give women some optimism and dignity during this traumatic period.

Through their online community of over 7k followers, Dorna today empowers and equips women with information about their menstrual health, thereby helping break taboos surrounding periods and promoting Period Positivity. They have managed to donate sanitary products to over 5,000 women so far by partnering with global charities. “Through these initiatives, our vision is to create a femtech business that will ensure a sustainable solution to ending Period Poverty ensuring global outreach for women in need,” adds Tala.

“We started in the Middle East,” says Dalia, “because it’s more accessible to us but our outreach is not geographically limited and our vision is global. We started our first collaborative mission in Lebanon, followed by our second also in Lebanon due to the devastating Beirut explosion with hopes to expand to Iraq and Jordan and so forth in the coming months.” Here Dalia and Tala explain what motivated them to begin Dorna:

Growing up you mention that the topic of menstruation was seen as something of a taboo. Was there any one incident that prompted you to take this up?

Dalia: In my experience, periods are a societal taboo that has many faces. On one hand, growing up in the Middle East, periods have always been a very hush-hush topic at home and in a non-educational setting. It was something that we were not told about until we had it, and even then it wasn’t really discussed, or a topic of discussion. On the other hand, there is the shame of being on your period and the worries that accompany it; what will others think? What will others say? What if I leak in public? What if I get my period but I don’t have any pads? What if…

These are all very real fears and menstruation becomes an obstacle that needs to be planned around. Especially having had it so young, many of my peers at the time had yet to begin menstruating.

My most vivid school memory is hiding my pad in my jacket sleeve despite the heat, so that no one would know; of course taking my bag to the bathroom is a dead giveaway. Being a nosy and curious child, I had a bit of fun going through my mother’s drawers and found her sanitary items. At the time, I had no clue what they were or what they were for, but I instantly knew it was a ‘grown ups’ item. Little did I know that I would be getting my period a short time later at the tender age of 10. I remember very vividly the sheer terror of the moment, I thought

there was something wrong with me; after all isn’t blood associated with trauma? It has certainly always had a negative connotation in all walks of life. I was then taken through the motions, taught the ropes so to speak. As if the shock of getting my period at 10 wasn’t bad enough, my father had to be told that his daughter had become a woman; the embarrassment was second to none, made better by the receipt of a coming of age present - a yellow Baby-G watch. Reality only sunk in when my periods became so painful, they started affecting my day-to-day life; I sadly knew that this was something I would have to live with, whether I liked it or not; in fact I hated it.

Today, I’ve now had my period for most of my life and I cannot remember a time where I haven’t dreaded it every month. There are so many negative feelings that surround menstruation such as fear, disgust and apprehension; I hope that through our mission we can help turn the tide and transform these feelings into positive affirmations. It is therefore my collective experiences that have spurred me to try to ease periods for menstruating women around the world, whether it is by starting a conversation, raising awareness, donating sanitary products or finding more environmentally friendly, reusable and cost-effective products, etc. Our aim is to end Period Poverty and to empower women around the world and to equip them with the right tools to manage their periods.

Why did you choose to name your mission Dorna – Our Turn?

Dalia: Dorna is our humanitarian response to end Period Poverty. Luckily it’s easy to pronounce and people always ask the meaning behind it so it makes for a great conversation starter! Staying true to our Arab roots as well as our mission, we chose a symbolic name that embodies both a call-for-action and a physiological process which people from all walks of life could relate to. The meaning behind Dorna is two-fold: a play on words taking inspiration from the words ‘period’ الدورة†(al dawra) in Arabic and ‘Our Turn’ دورنا†(Dorna), hence our name. With Dorna, it’s our turn to help women in need and refugees manage their periods hygienically and with dignity.

For many cultures, period is something immensely private, a subject they don’t want to talk about in public, even somewhat of a taboo subject – how do you overcome that? How do you hope to break the taboo around the subject.

Dalia: Where we come from, and in most parts of the world, periods are very much a taboo subject. The main reason for this is because menstruation evokes feelings of disgust, people regard it as being dirty, unsanitary. Yet it is the only blood that isn’t born from violence. There are two very different yet complementary topics when it comes to periods; on one hand the bleeding that most people are aware of, and on the other, all the symptoms that accompany them which are both physical and mental, together they make up the two sides of the coin. The first challenge is internal: women need to start being more open with themselves and nurture their own personal relationships with their own periods and talking about it more openly amongst each other, before any of us are all able to talk about it in any sort of setting.

The conversation starts with us, for us. How can we as women, expect to talk about something that is so natural and intrinsic to us being who we are, if between us we use code names and words?

The second challenge is external: it is a process of unlearning. I believe ignorance is definitely a challenge as well. People are misinformed about menstruation because it is not something that is talked about; so how can we expect people to be informed and more importantly to change their minds?

We have a responsibility to find out how best to convey the message we are putting forward; it is not just a biological process which is necessary for the creation of life, but there is a whole host of things that go hand in hand with menstruation. Different women have different periods and different symptoms. The most known one is PMS of course; if a woman is having a bad day, people immediately tend to ask if she is PMSing. It has a known widespread negative connotation. Yet if we are all unique, no two women's experiences are the same. It is something that is not easy to deal with and between women we compare ‘battle wounds’; who has had it worse?

Some people have it so bad that they miss out on school, work and social events, others barely notice theirs. Something that so many women struggle with deserves to be a topic of conversation that everyone should talk about; especially when 62% of women don’t even have the basic necessities to manage their periods. Women all over the world menstruate and have the same basic needs yet some are not afforded the human right to for these to be met. It’s up to us menstruators to normalise periods and the conversations around them; to get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Basic sanitary products are still considered a luxury in many parts of the world, what can be done to make it more accessible?

Tala: In 2018, the United Nations (UN) reported that the shame, stigma, and misinformation that surround periods can lead to serious health and human rights concerns. That’s why they declared menstrual hygiene an issue that affects public health, gender equality, and human rights.

Dorna’s mission

1) End Period Poverty and provide vulnerable women with sanitary products;

2) Equip and empower them with information about their menstrual health and;

3) Debunk myths around periods and promote Period Positivity to remove shame and stigma, breaking the long-standing taboo of menstruation.

How can one be a part of Dorna Mission

1. Follow instagram @itsdorna and join the conversation to end Period Poverty.

Tala believes growing their community is crucial to spreading the message and helping empower girls and women all around the world break the taboo around periods and uniting us to help highlight this underestimated issue.

2. Donate to the cause (www.dorna.me) - all funds go to projects to end period poverty in collaboration with trusted NGOs to aid in distribution. Our donations are currently going to NGOs in Lebanon to help support them in the aftermath of the explosion. Check www.dorna.me

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