MUMBAI: Wash United, an international non-profit organization and the initiator of the Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28 May, joined forces with Happy mcgarrybowen, the creative agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, to create a digital-first awareness campaign in order to tear down walls of silence and stigma that surround menstruation.

Wash United collaborated with spoken word artist Aranya Johar to create a compelling video called ‘To bleed without Violence’ along with Happy mcgarrybowen. The video features Aranya talking positively about the stigma around menstruation.

Wash United managing director Nirmala Nair said, “Menstruation is a normal biological process. How is it possible that we cannot talk openly about something that is perfectly natural and without which none of us would exist? At Wash United, we constantly look for innovative solutions to create a positive shift in knowledge, attitude and behaviour and this campaign was one such effort. The campaign has sparked a conversation around the issue that has been much hushed about.”

Happy mcgarrybowen MD and CCO PM Praveen Das commented, “I believe that the businesses we run are inextricably linked to the social-economic environments in which they function. Our firm belief in the merit of design thinking and problem solving around social causes has led us at Happy mcgarrybowen to set up an exclusive division for Social Behaviour Change Communication. This team currently focusses on initiatives for international NGOs such as Wash United, Swachh Bharat and Worldreader’s readtokids.com to name a few. We look forward to partnering with such organisations to create impactful programmes like we did for 'Menstrual Hygiene Day’, in order to highlight the importance of such issues.”

‘To bleed without Violence’ went viral with 7.5 million views, in addition to being shared by Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar in just four days. However, the true measure of success for this campaign was when the audience walked away educated and empathetic towards menstruation