yes.period: Rethinking Menstrual Health Education in Schools
About the session
Menstrual health is often treated as an add-on to school WASH programs. Yet for millions of girls, it shapes whether they stay in school, how they feel about their bodies, and how they participate in daily life.
Co-hosted with WASH United, this session is designed as a hands-on, small-group experience rather than a panel.
Participants will engage directly with yes.period, a new menstrual health education platform, by stepping into the experience as students. In facilitated groups, they will move through content that builds body literacy, challenges stigma, and brings boys into the conversation, not as bystanders, but as participants in shaping more supportive school environments.
The goal is not to present a finished solution, but to allow participants to experience the difference between common approaches and those that are more participatory, story-driven, and relational. The session explores how education can move beyond simply providing information to building confidence, fostering mutual support, and creating empathy across a wider social ecosystem.
This session also offers an early preview of yes.period ahead of its broader rollout.
Following the experience, the group will open a shared discussion across funders, practitioners, and educators, exploring questions such as:
What does it take to move menstrual health from the margins into the core of school systems?
What gets missed when approaches rely only on information provision rather than participation?
What would it look like to scale approaches like this responsibly across different contexts?
Who this is for
This session is for funders, implementers, and practitioners working across education, gender, and health who are interested in more effective and inclusive approaches to menstrual health.
What you will get out of it
A first-hand experience of a participatory menstrual health education approach
Insight into how group-based, story-driven learning can shift confidence and norms
A deeper understanding of the limitations of traditional information-based approaches
A chance to engage with others working to improve menstrual health education across contexts
This session is designed for those interested in exploring how more inclusive and participatory approaches can strengthen both education systems and student wellbeing.
Location & access
Accessibility matters deeply to us, and we do our best to choose spaces that reflect that. That said, some of our Oxford venues are in historic buildings without lifts. This room is unfortunately not accessible for wheelchair users, those with mobility challenges, or anyone needing step-free access.