The urge behind the formation of ‘All for One Foundation’ came from an awful real-life experience. Mira, one of the founding members of the foundation, once visited a remote river island of Bangladesh where she suddenly got her period. She could not find any pharmacy to buy sanitary napkin and thus she was seeking help from local houses. A woman helped her by giving a piece of old cloth. As a temporary solution, she took that. However, Mira was shocked and worried when the women innocently told her to cover the cloth with sands as she has to walk for a long time. It would help her to hold the blood for a long time. It triggered Mira with a concern about how terribly rural women are treating their period.
Out of curiosity, Mira visited a school there and found that during period girls miss out on school classes as they have to change the cloth they use during period. They use the same cloth every time only by washing them. Mira decided that she would help these girls by providing sanitary napkin. She posted this story on social media and requested her friends to raise fund for these underprivileged children. She received a mind-blowing response and created a team of 7 members to develop an educational session on adolescent health and hygiene.
Till then All for One Foundation has been supporting adolescents by providing them with education and sanitary products. Though their primary aim was to raise awareness on adolescent menstrual health, gradually they developed educational contents for safe touch, hygiene, mental preparation to deal with period.
All for One Foundation is now working with many schools across the country to raise awareness among teachers, parents, and students on adolescent health and hygiene. More than 20 schools are receiving educational session thanks to the efforts of 86 active volunteers, educators, and doctors. So far, 7109 women and children have been directly benefited through their initiatives. In addition, they are also working with 30,000 women and children of slams in Dhaka city where they are creating awareness on STDs, menstrual health, the importance of using protection during intercourse, better family planning, disadvantages of consuming excessive contraceptive pills etc.
It was never a smooth journey for Mira and her team as menstrual hygiene, education and awareness initiatives on gender and sexual reproductive health is a taboo in the underprivileged community of Bangladesh. In the beginning, many schools rejected their proposal. They received threats from slam areas too. But they didn’t call it a day.
Young Bangla recognized All for One Foundation’s outstanding contribution to society and humanity by giving the Joy Bangla Youth Award in 2018. Young Bangla prides itself in empowering these courageous youth group of All for One through Young Bangla network to support their remarkable initiatives towards local and national development.
