Watch back
In recognition of Menstrual Hygiene Day, join our online discussion with a panel of academic experts, business owners, NGO and advocates as we discuss the greatest issues facing the modern-day period.
The Cranfield Sustainability group is proud to present this lunchtime panel session facilitated by our current MSc Management and Corporate Sustainability student Wendy Laryea. Wendy’s many years leading non-profit initiatives has enthused her to take action, break taboos and raise awareness about issues facing people who menstruate. Join us to explore the social, economic, and environmental challenges by hearing from some of the people who are working to overcome them across the globe.
Sustainability Network Speaker Series
The Sustainability Network Speaker Series is the platform for our network of Cranfield students, faculty, staff, and alumni, our partners in industry and sustainability enthusiasts to hear from thought leaders across all sectors.
The series is a chance to delve into a sustainability-related hot topic and explore the challenges and opportunities in embedding sustainability in various areas of industry. We typically host panels and lectures with a mix of thought leaders, sustainability and industry professionals, government, NGOs and academe to seed this discussion. Every session has an opportunity for you to ask questions and get involved in the discussion, as well as a chance to connect with other like-minded people.
Speakers
Wendy Atswei Laryea
Management and Corporate Sustainability MSc student
Wendy is a multiple Award-winning Journalist and a Chevening Scholar. She is a UNICEF Menstrual Hygiene Influencer and the founder of ‘Inspire to Rise' a foundation which has empowered and engaged over 5000 youth to address misconceptions about menstruation, help to make informed choices and decisions towards their growth and personal development. She has distributed over 1,500 sanitary pads to schoolgirls and women in vulnerable communities. In 2020, her foundation organized a virtual conversation on Menstrual Hygiene Management with focus on females with disabilities and ending period stigma. These virtual interventions reached close to 100,000 young people across the country.
Dr May Sule
Lecturer in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Cranfield University
Dr May Sule is an Environmental Engineer specialising in the interactions between water, sanitation, hygiene and health systems. May has worked and researched on urban water supply systems, water pollution and treatment, and international development. Her research focuses on the technical and non-technical (socio-economic) aspects of achieving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) success in line with the global sustainable development goals agenda.
Dr Alison Parker
Senior Lecturer in International Water and Sanitation, Cranfield University
Dr Parker completed a four-year Masters degree at the University of Oxford in Earth Sciences. This was followed by a PhD at the University of Leeds studying the hydrogeology of the chalk aquifer of East Yorkshire. Dr Parker started as a Research Fellow at Cranfield University in January 2009 and was progressed to Senior Lecturer by October 2019.
Deane De Menezes
Founder, Red Is The New Green
Deane is the founder of Red is the New Green (RING Sustainable Development Foundation) – an award winning non-profit working towards reducing the social stigma attached to menstruation through education and advocacy. Since 2016, she has created a framework for sustainable menstrual health management through education, menstrual product access and waste disposal solutions and worked with over 200,000 individuals. In 2018, she was awarded the Queen’s Young Leader Award by HM Queen Elizabeth II and in 2019 was featured in Forbes Asia 30 under 30 under 30 List for her efforts in reducing period poverty. During the Covid-19 pandemic in Mumbai, India, Deane launched a national fundraising campaign called 'Pass on the Pad' to supply locally made menstrual pads to vulnerable communities impacted due to the lockdown and distributed over 350,000 period kits across India. Currently Deane is pursuing her Masters in International Development at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Emily Otoo-Quayson
Founder, Floyya
Emily is a passionate environmentalist, and young researcher. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Her program of studies and impact-based projects she undertook has fueled her keen interest in WASH related activities. She is the founder of Eri, a community of diligent people interested in providing safe and affordable menstrual products. Emily is a social entrepreneur, a resolution fellow and research fellow for African research academy. She loves inspiring young people and aspires to be one of the leading researchers in STEM.
Solomon Tesfamariam
Country Director, Plan International Ghana
Solomon is an international development practitioner with a special focus and interest in Africa. He brings more than 20 years of experience managing large-scale programs across multiple sectors. Solomon has years of work experience in the INGO sector, bilateral and multilateral aid. With a notable reputation in project implementation of numerous complex projects with focused engagements in finding long and lasting solutions to causes of poverty.
Solomon has held numerous appointments across Africa including senior program roles with UNFPA in Zambia, CRS Zambia, and he was responsible for the largest CRS Southern Africa program in Zimbabwe. Serving as Country Director for World Vision in Swaziland and other US INGOs in Zambia and Kenya in the last 10 years. Solomon moved to Accra, Ghana in September 2018 to take up the role of Country Director at Plan International Ghana and has been instrumental in bringing in funding to address the root causes of poverty and inequality among children, young people, girls and women. Solomon was educated at Aalborg University in Denmark with additional post-graduate studies on International Affairs from University of Ghana, and received his Master of Arts degree in International Development Studies.
Phoebe Sanderson
Country Coordinator, Days for Girls UK
Phoebe is the UK Country Coordinator for Days for Girls, an international organisation who make and supply reusable menstrual supplies and health education to menstruators worldwide. Phoebe’s interests and experience lie in education, child development, sustainable community development and locally led solutions. She spent four years living and working in northern Tanzania with an NGO empowering and supporting families to remain together and achieve independence as well as teaching in the local community. Since joining Days for Girls in 2020, Phoebe has been dedicated to making sure that women and girls globally are provided with not only the menstrual supplies they need but the knowledge and understanding that breaks menstrual stigma.
Sehar Taimoor
Programme Manager, WaterAid in Pakistan
Experienced education sector specialist, with more than 13 years of experience in education, economic empowerment and child development domains. Sehar is leading a national campaign on menstrual hygiene management and is trying to break taboos on menstruation in Pakistan. Building a team of champions with influential women from all walks of life to support the menstrual hygiene campaign at a national level across all sectors. Sehar has a masters degree in Psychology and has background in working against sexual abuse, education and women empowerment with national and international organizations across Pakistan.
Sarah Jordan
CEO, Y.O.U underwear
Sarah Jordan is the award-winning founder and CEO of Y.O.U underwear, a sustainable underwear business recently certified as the top-scoring B Corp in the UK and the world's highest-scoring fashion brand.
Sarah's previous experience includes more than 25 years in senior leadership roles across the not-for-profit, commercial and publishing sectors, as well as leading her own strategic digital consultancy business.
Sarah was volunteering in Uganda in 2016 when she learned of the challenges women and girls face in not having access to underwear. When subsequently learning about the issues caused by conventional cotton farming, as well as the fashion industry more broadly, she set up Y.O.U underwear as a social enterprise with the mission of changing lives one pair of pants at a time.
Sarah is also a qualified NLP practitioner and coach, Trustee of the charities Smalls for All and The Beam Foundation, and has run BOLD, a positive change agency helping women achieve success in all areas of their lives, since 2013.
Who is it for?
We believe that menstruation is an issue that affects all of us- whether you menstruate or not… The more people who engage in open discussion, the quicker we can find solutions to ‘build a world where no one is held back because they menstruate by 2030’ which is the mission of Menstrual Hygiene Day.
This event is open to everyone.
Register
This is an online event. Some of our panel will be present in our on-campus studio, some of our international guests will join online. You can access this event via Zoom.
