Throughout the history, women’s voices concerning reproductive and menstrual health have been silenced and neglected in a patriarchal, cis male-dominant world. In various different social contexts, to this day there is a strong prevalence of stigmas surrounding all things menstruation – pain, hygiene and menstrual and mental illnesses related to them. “Today, lines between the Global South and the Global North are blurring. Examples of sometimes parallel, sometimes divergent menstrual experiences that appear below should remind readers that focusing on essentializing distinctions between “us” and “them” makes sense neither ethnographically nor ethically.” (Gottlieb in Bobel et al., 2020, p. 144). Even though in recent years there has been an increased attention for Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in humanitarian contexts, we will learn that the entire world has quite a long way to go towards properly addressing certain menstrual illnesses and disorders. 

In this DP I will be assessing the driving ICT for Development and ComDev force in breaking the silence around menstruation and endometriosis - #EndoWarriors on Social Media channel Instagram. I would like to conduct this research in order to learn the best #EndoWarrior visual and textual communication practices and prevalent themes, which, if used by ComDev in global development and international organizations, could possibly increase awareness and advocacy on this incurable disease; and incite private and public funding for research which it so desperately lacks. This DP covers only a fraction of a greater problem, and I hope it will promote more dialogue and feasible solutions for menstrual health conditions in the near future.