Ziyaan Virji breaks down taboos around menstrual health in new ways

Ziyaan Virji, founder of For The Menstruator and Leaders of Today, a youth-led non-profit organization and global movement of young leaders, joins returning host Shreya for an honest conversation about breaking down stigma, overcoming setbacks and creating meaningful change. At just 23 years old, Ziyaan has confronted global period poverty and reached over 25,000 people across ten countries with menstrual health products and knowledge. He has spoken on some of the world's biggest stages including TEDx and the United Nations. Ziyaan and Shreya discuss the intersection of femtech* innovation and youth-driven Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. He shares personal insights on involving men in menstrual health conversations and the importance of co-creating solutions with communities. They discuss advice for young activists, embracing your “why” and how to build lasting change. 

*Femtech refers to technology that focuses on women’s health, including software, products and services. 

*SHE SOARS, funded by Global Affairs Canada, is the Sexual and reproductive Health and Economic empowerment Supporting Out-of-school Adolescent girls’ Rights and Skills project. Learn more at: https://care.ca/shesoarsproject

Episode transcripts are available in French and English at: care.ca/shesoars.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the SHE SOARS podcast are the speakers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, standards and policies of CARE Canada. The SHE SOARS podcast is a youth-led initiative that provides space for young people to discuss global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights with the purpose of raising awareness in Canada. Listeners acknowledge that the material and information presented in the podcast are for informational purposes only and do not constitute advice or services. The podcast is for private, non-commercial use and speakers do not necessarily reflect any organization they work for.

Chapters

• 1:09 Introduction to Ziyaan's global menstrual equity work
• 7:02 Engaging men and boys in menstrual health conversations
• 12:02 Learning the value of community engagement in development
• 19:35 Advice for young leaders looking to create change
• 23:46 Incorporating artificial intelligence in youth-led initiatives

Transcript

[00:00:00] Paniz: Hi, and welcome to SHE SOARS. Her voice. Her rights. 

[00:00:05] Jacqueline: We are CARE Canada's Youth Champions, a group of young people across Canada who are passionate advocates for Sexual and Reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

[00:00:13] Paniz: We're excited to discuss and raise awareness about young women's rights and choices in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. ​

[00:00:18] Jacqueline: Together, we will explore how these global issues connect to our lives as Canadian youth and discover ways in which we can all take action. 

[00:00:26] Paniz: We will also talk about the SHE SOARS project, which improves access to health and education, which are areas we want to see change in. Join us!

[00:00:37] Shreya: Hello and welcome to the SHE SOARS podcast. My name is Shreya, one of the Youth Public Engagement Champions at CARE Canada and the host of today's episode. I want to welcome you to our founder series. We’re going to be highlighting femtech founders, innovators, and changemakers who are leading the way in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights with a focus on how their work intersects with youth empowerment. By sharing these stories, we're going to be discussing the future of youth-driven SRHR, how innovation can break down barriers, and the role young people play in transforming the landscape of women's health.

[00:01:09] I'm super excited and delighted to introduce you to one of our guests today, Ziyaan Virji. At just 23 years old, Ziyaan has done a lot of things that most teenage boys don't, like dedicating his life to ending period poverty. While some 15-year-olds were practicing their FIFA skills, Ziyaan founded For the Menstruator, an initiative to achieve menstrual equity. What started as a personal project in his IB (International Baccalaureate) program quickly turned into a global movement impacting over 25, 000 people across ten different countries. Since then, Ziyaan has expanded his work into climate, health and education, always with one goal – making sure young people don't just wait for change but also lead it.

[00:01:48] He's spoken on some of the world's biggest stages, including TEDx, the United Nations, and leading universities, reaching over half a million people worldwide. Now Ziyaan leads Leaders of Today, a community of over 50, 000 young people, empowering them to step into leadership through media, consulting and speaking engagements. 

[00:02:06] Ziyaan believes in action, humor and a little bit of organized chaos to create real change, and if that means making people slightly uncomfortable when talking about pads and tampons, well, that's just part of our job.

[00:02:17] In our last episode, we shared some stories from the Youth Advisory Board in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, who are working on the SHE SOARS project. One initiative was actually menstrual pad making so this is a perfect topic for today's episode that we're going to be discussing with Ziyaan.

[00:02:32] Ziyaan, it's lovely to have you here today and I would love to hear about you and the work that you're doing.

[00:02:38] Ziyaan: Of course, thank you so much for having me on this amazing podcast. I had a chance to see some of the other episodes and love what you folks are doing at CARE Canada and the SHE SOARS project. In terms of my background, I’m from East Africa. I was born and raised there and I had the opportunity to start a school project in grade nine. And I remember watching a documentary about India's Menstrual Man, which was the first time I learned about menstrual health and periods, especially as a boy from an Indian Muslim household in East Africa. And that documentary led me to having this conversation with my mom in which I found out that when she was younger, she didn't have proper access to menstrual products. So that kind of inspired me to go down this rabbit hole where decided to tackle this issue.

[00:03:29] And seven years later, I've been very privileged for that school project to turn into this movement where we have been able to support 25, 000 people in ten countries around the world. That has led to a lot of different opportunities in the social impact space and eventually led to what I spend most of my time now [doing], which is a company I started called Leaders of Today, which is centered around helping young people to find their purpose and maximize their potential and start their own leadership journeys. So that's a little bit about myself. I'm excited to get into the conversation and share some of the learnings that I've had from my last couple years in the space.

[00:04:05] Shreya: Awesome, thank you. I would love to hear about specifically what led you to start your initiative. How did you first get involved in the SRHR space? And then what motivated you to create products that would help with youth empowerment and menstrual equity issues?

[00:04:19] Ziyaan: Of course. So when I was in boarding school in grade nine, I was required to do a personal project as part of my school curriculum. I could do anything of my choice as long as I would spend one year on it. And I remember struggling to find an idea and scrolling through my Facebook feed and coming across this documentary on Al Jazeera’s page that was titled India's Menstrual Man. I love watching documentaries and I remember being super inspired and feeling very curious about this topic of menstrual health and periods. At the time I didn't really know much about this space, especially as a teenage boy that grew up in an Indian Muslim household in East Africa where periods are not something guys really talk about. So I watched this documentary and decided to have a chat with my mom about it and she told me that when she was younger she grew up in a single parent household and there was a point in her life where she couldn't afford access to menstrual products. And so she would use old cloth and rags and blankets every time she would get her period. She shared with me all these stories about how unhygienic it felt and how embarrassing it was. There were moments where she leaked and her friends had to cover her and help her get home and that kind of inspired me to spend more time on this topic and explore what it's about. When I did my research, I found out that 500 million people around the world don't have access to this product.

[00:05:55] In East Africa at the time, I think the numbers were around 65 per cent of menstruators didn't have access. And I was like, why is no one talking about this when over half of our population is suffering from this issue? We need to do something about this. And so my school project at the time, I'm like, I'm going to do more research. I'm going to find out what some existing solutions are. And I remember learning how to stitch with the local tailor. There is this iconic picture of me in my messy dorm room learning how to make this product. And I decided to create a reusable menstrual product that will last for six months and that is what led me to go on this whole journey.

[00:06:35] Shreya: Thank you for that. You touched on a lot of really important things. I love to hear about the engagement – or lack of – that is what caused you to create this conversation amongst the people that you were in community with. And I think it really touches on your ability to love people to the point of invention. The fact that you saw the people around you struggling and that is what inspired you to create something to support them is very inspiring. I also wanted to touch on the importance of engaging men and boys in this conversation and what your experience was with that. Did you ever experience any setbacks or anything that you want to share in regards to talking about this issue in the community?

[00:07:18] Ziyaan: Yeah, 100 per cent. It was definitely a big challenge and barrier being a guy and someone that doesn't menstruate working in this space. The sad reality of the world that we live in, especially in the context that I was doing a lot of my work, is unfortunately a lot of decision-making is usually in the power of people that don't menstruate or don't really understand this issue. So everything from a government level where they're deciding how much to tax menstrual products, which is a big issue in this space; To the corporate office level where the CEO is usually a guy and they have a policy around when menstruators can take period leave or how many menstrual products to put in the women's bathroom; To principals on the school level where they decide to give products to their students to a household level. It is usually the father of the family that is the breadwinner and they decide how they're going to use their monthly income. We've been in a lot of contexts where there have been women and girls whose family can afford menstrual products but because there is such a huge taboo and stigma, they're so scared to ask their father for money to buy a menstrual product. And so being a guy in the space I think we made a lot of progress in the last seven years, but at the time in my context a lot of people around me would make fun of me for working in the space. A lot of my guy friends will laugh and make jokes. And so it was quite difficult.

[00:09:00] Even when we go into communities there have been a lot of moments where I've been conducting a workshop and guys in the room have felt like they don't need to be in the room. And as I'm talking, they have left the room because of how uncomfortable they felt. There have been contexts where I have led a workshop, but the women and girls in the room have felt super uncomfortable chatting with a guy about this topic. And so I’ve had to step out of the room and let my team members who are menstruators lead this conversation. So that is the context that I did a lot of my work in. Another barrier is also being a 15 year old at the time trying to solve this, right? Which we can go and spend all day talking about. But yeah, lots of barriers, lots of challenges that I overcome through that, but a lot of our work was centered on how we break the stigmas related to this topic.

[00:09:55] Ziyaan: How do we involve more men in this conversation? In our workshops that we would host, we would not only work with menstruators, but we would work with non-menstruators and have conversations with them. Usually in their sexual and reproductive health classes that sometimes they have guys and girls are separate and in the guy's room, they're not talking about periods and menstrual health. And so a lot of work was centered on education and seeing how from a young age on the school level, how can we teach non-menstruators about this topic? A lot of times they are decision-makers and they can influence a lot in this issue.

[00:10:32] Shreya: Thank you so much. I'm curious to hear along your journey, have you seen that certain topics land better when it comes to engaging men in the conversation? Or has there been any point where you've had to pivot the content that you might share in order to get them more engaged?

[00:10:48] Ziyaan: Yeah, I think there have definitely been a lot of moments where we've had to speak the language of the people that we're engaging with for lack of a better way of saying that. And as part of that, a lot of times we would have to, you know, instead of making guys feel like this is something that doesn't directly affect them, we would have to talk about small things like, ‘Hey, if you want to get a girl, you should be knowing about this like your aura is way higher if you know about menstrual health and periods.’ And so opening up that conversation but there's definitely been moments where we have to contextualize and see how to involve especially young boys and men as part of this. In the last seven years culturally a lot has changed and globally a lot has changed. There have definitely been moments where we have had the Andrew Tates of the world tell a guy what it means to be masculine. So we have had to navigate that to more recently we've had men being more open and vulnerable and being willing to have conversations they’re uncomfortable about. 

[00:11:49] Shreya: That's a really good point. Being somebody who is part of Gen Z, I feel like meeting us where we are and how we're communicating is a really good way to ensure that there is some kind of engagement. I also wonder how does your initiative prioritize involving young people in the conversation, being a young person yourself? What might that look like? And how do you go about sharing your message and encouraging them to join your conversation?

[00:12:15] Ziyaan: Yeah, so all of our work was for youth by youth from the very first day, seven years ago when we started. All our volunteers, there was a point at the peak of some of our work where we had over 150 young people from all over the world in their own communities leading these projects. Our target audiences usually are young people as well so we would be in schools and universities distributing these products, educating and working with them. To give you some context, right after that initial project, I went back to the community that I initially supported and asked for feedback and they told me that I had contributed more to the problem than solving it after that one year that I had worked with them because the product that I made had only lasted for six months and after six months they would now keep depending on me to come and help them out. And so we created a dependency. People think if you go to a community and you assume that they have a need, you can go buy a bunch of products, give it to them, take a bunch of pictures, feel good about it and show it to your donors.

[00:13:22] But this issue has been around for hundreds of years and is still an issue because unfortunately, a lot of organizations go with that approach and instead of trying to help the people help themselves, they create this dependency so that they can have their job to come to the next day. That is something I learned the hard way and I realized the only way to really solve this problem is if you really want to help someone, you’ve got to shut up and listen, and you’ve got to really spend time to understand their context, co-create with them and build relationships. So we started doing that but I realized I couldn't do it myself. I decided to start up a small team. We were seven to ten people at the time, the young people at my school, and we were like, ‘We're going to take this issue on.’ The first couple of things we did was one, we changed our products.

[00:14:21] So we spent a lot of time in community, getting feedback on what the best product would be, and eventually co-created a product with one of our community stakeholders who were women with disabilities actually. With them, we created a product that would now last for three years, which is one hundred percent biodegradable, extremely cost effective, and included things that I had never considered before as a guy.

[00:14:42] Things like pairs of underwear to actually wear this product, the colours and the materials that we use, how comfortable it was, all these different factors that I would have never known if I didn't listen and co-create. And then what we did change was our approach. So now instead of just going to a community and distributing products, we'll go in there, do a needs assessment and build a relationship with them. After collecting all that data and having a relationship, we then usually do an educational workshop where we'll teach about reproductive and sexual health. After that, we give our products, we tell them that this is not your only option, there are a lot of options for you, and we educate them on those options. We teach them how to use and wash it. Then what we also do is we teach them how to make their own. And what we've seen is that if there is a community of 1000 and we go in there and provide the skill to just ten people, those ten people then pass on that skill to ten others.

[00:15:39] And those ten pass it on to ten others and eventually now this whole community. So there is usually an exponential effect by doing that. And lastly, in some communities, we have actually created entrepreneurial opportunities to now use the skill to sell the products within their community. That in turn removes this poverty cycle, which is in fact the root cause of the problem. And we have seen a lot of success with that. We can't even account for the exponential effect of that direct 25,000 people we’ve supported. We usually then end with a celebration and review phase where we assess the impact of our work, collect feedback and then apply that feedback to the next community. So that is a big change that we had to fail and learn the hard way, but it is such an important conversation in this work because that is really how we create long lasting solutions versus one-off temporary solutions that actually create more problems. 

[00:16:39] Shreya: Yeah, it sounded like you had to go back to the drawing board and reassess the actual impact that you were having. So I'm curious to hear more about the actual product development process and what groups you were speaking to and consulting when it came to redeveloping your initiative or revitalizing it. And maybe if you have any stories to share or feedback that has helped shape the direction of your initiative or anything that stands out for you.

[00:17:04] Ziyaan: Yeah, 100 percent solid. I'll share a little bit more about that process in our second iteration of the product. Going into a lot of communities and as I mentioned listening, we found out a lot of things that we never considered before. So one of the things that we found out from communities was the product that we made was a reusable menstrual product that was made out of cloth, and my initial product, the colour of that was white. And when there is a blood stain on this cloth, you have to wash this product and hang it out in the open and dry it in the sun. Then a lot of times the community told us that when they have to do that, and it's a white cloth, you can see the blood, for example. [They were] embarrassed to put it out in the open because a lot of people would see they’re on they’re period. And so what a lot of communities were doing was they would put another cloth on top of it to cover it. But that defeats the purpose of drying it out under the sun because that kills some of the bacteria. So that was something I had never considered because I never got a period. I had to factor this in this context. Another thing that we found out was a lot of people in our initial group, when we gave out this product, they weren't actually wearing the product because they didn't have any underwear to wear it on.

[00:18:28] And so the way the product was designed is that you need to clip it onto underwear but they couldn't afford underwear. And so they wouldn't wear the product because they just couldn't. So in our iteration of the product, now in our package, we include pairs of underwear as part of it so that they can actually wear it. There were some communities we went to where we found out that everything makes sense in terms of the product but they can't afford antiseptic soap to wash this product and they were using dirty water to wash it, which is super unhygienic. So we started including antiseptic soap in our packages. So these are a couple things that it took a lot of listening and iterations. Especially as someone that isn't directly affected by the problem, you just kind of assume all these different things based on your own context and lived experiences, which can in fact cause a lot of different problems that you may not even know.

[00:19:32] As a someone that is considering getting into the space and is listening, I highly, highly recommend before you take any step, spend time in the communities that you want to support and spend time listening. You will be surprised how the community would already know what solution they need. And all they need is maybe some resources or just some support to get them to bring that to life. Maybe that could be your role versus trying to reinvent the whole wheel and trying to feel like you're the person that's, you know, ‘changing the world.’

[00:20:06] Shreya: Yeah, that is an excellent message. Sometimes instead of starting your own initiative, it helps to join ones that already exist and contribute your time and energy to those. So on that topic, do you have any advice potentially for any of our listeners or young activists who are looking to create change in their communities or start an initiative or anything like that and have impact in the SRHR space?

[00:20:30] Ziyaan: Yeah, lots of advice. I think we could do a whole other podcast on that but I'm going to try to sum it up. I think as someone that is listening that wants to start their own initiative, the very first step that I would ask them to do is think about ‘the why.’ One of my favorite quotes is ‘the energy is in the purpose, not the plan.’ Once you know your purpose, once you know your why, then the plan sort of figures out itself. And when you come across different challenges and barriers, your why is the thing that helps you push through. And so number one step: Think about your why, you know, you really want to make it personal. For me, I knew my mom faced this issue.

[00:21:07] It felt like a personal thing that I wanted to address even though I had never experienced a period or never had to face this issue. And so when you make it personal and you have that why I think it really pushes. Second thing I would say is, I mentioned this earlier but if you want to help someone, shut up and listen, and I really mean that at the core of it. Spend enough time talking to the people that have been in this space, spend enough time going into the communities that you want to support, just listening, building a relationship with them. And the last thing I would say is, this is a Swahili saying, but it says “haraka haraka haina baraka,” which stands for “fast, fast gives no rewards or blessings.” We live in a generation where we are constantly fed 30 second wheels and TikToks of ‘here's how I made a million dollars as a five year old,’ you know, and subconsciously that helps us have this mindset where whatever we do, we're going to get it so quick. And we want that instant gratification, but if you do want to make change and you want to really impact and change the world and be in this space, you have to play the long game. I unfortunately had that mindset too because I grew up in the same generation of instant gratification.

[00:22:31] I eventually burnt out and had to take a step back from my work. And I was doing things that were not sustainable. But we have a whole life to make an impact. Instead of thinking what success I'm going to have in the next month or the next couple of weeks, think about what a full year of focus or a full three years, a full five years, ten years of focus looks like. And play that game because when you're playing short term games, you're going to have short term results. When you're playing long term games, you're really going to have that long term impact that's sustainable.   

[00:23:06] Shreya: Thank you. Yeah, it's something that I as a young person need to hear too especially the topic of burnout and that being something that's so prevalent for a lot of us. You always feel like you have to compare yourself to all the people you see on LinkedIn or any of those spaces where there is just a lot of competition rather than focus on actually having impact in communities. So thank you so much for sharing that. I'm also curious to hear, are there any youth led movements that inspired you when you were in the process of developing your initiative? Or are there any you have your eyes on right now that are really exciting and innovative in this industry?

[00:23:43] Ziyaan: There's lots. I engage with so many young people and there are so many people I look up to. I'm always learning. Instead of mentioning any specific names, I think really thinking about AI [artificial intelligence] is really cool right now and thinking about how whatever project you're working on, there is an element of tech and AI that you can incorporate in your existing efforts that will definitely allow you to build leverage and scale your work at a level that we've never been able to do before. If there is a young person listening and thinking of how to incorporate existing trends and technologies, think about the convergence of AI, the convergence of Web3, the convergence of media and content. I think if you find something that incorporates all those different aspects, it's so much easier than ever before to scale and grow and build. There is a lot that you can do that we wouldn't be able to do five years ago.

[00:24:49] Shreya: That's so true. Yes, AI is something that we have been talking about. You also touched on media and that is something that is really important, whether it be podcasting, our social media content on Instagram or what have you, that's the way that we're able to spread our message so far and so fast. And on that note, I was wondering where can our listeners find out more about your initiative or learn about your mission and how to get involved?

[00:25:13] Ziyaan: Yeah, people can just check me out either on my website or social media at Z-I-Y-A-A-N-V-I-R-J-I, on all socials or even if you just Google my name, you will see the link to my website. I spend a lot of time working with young people. Fridays are my days. I usually have 15 minute chats with young people in my community. And so I offer this to all the listeners, if you do want to spend some time brainstorming or just need some advice or someone to share ideas with, I would love to offer that to the community of listeners on this podcast as well.

[00:25:56] And yeah, I'm very excited. We are living in exciting times, although it feels like the world is crashing down. I think it's in moments like this where opportunities are created. There is a lot of opportunity to innovate, to grow, and we need young people now more than ever before. And we need young people that are willing to be strong and take an unconventional path. So if you're someone that's listening and you have wanted to start something or you have been thinking about for so long, the barrier to entry is so low. So you can really get started with whatever you want to work on.

[00:26:26] Shreya: Thank you so much, Ziyaan, for being on the podcast today. You have done such incredible things and just me being a fan of you myself, it's been an honor to get to speak with you and hear about your entrepreneurial journey. It was amazing to hear your story and I really appreciate you coming on and getting a chance to connect with all of our listeners.

[00:26:46] Ziyaan: Likewise. Thank you so much for having me. I’m super excited to see the feedback on this conversation and excited for this time that we're currently living with. Thank you so much for having me again.

[00:26:57] Shreya: That's all for today's episode of the SHE SOARS podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in and joining the conversation. We hope you feel inspired, empowered, and ready to take on the world. But before we say goodbye, let's have a little bit of fun. The secret word for the day is going to be ‘menstruator.’ So if you're listening carefully and this word sparks something inside of you, be sure to check out our social media pages and click follow for a special surprise. You never know when the secret word might come into play.   

[00:27:24] Jacqueline: Thanks for listening to SHE SOARS. If you liked this episode, please share it on social media, connect with us in the comments or give us a like.

[00:27:31] Paniz: Make sure to catch our next episode by subscribing to our channel and following us wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:27:37] Jacqueline: Follow @CARECanada on Instagram for updates on our show and the project.

[00:27:42] Paniz: SHE SOARS stands for Sexual and reproductive Health and Economic empowerment, Supporting Out-of-school Adolescent girls’ Rights and Skills in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.

[00:27:51] Jacqueline: The project is funded by Global Affairs Canada. Check out our global partner organizations: The Center for Reproductive Rights and Restless Development for even more project updates. 

[00:28:01] Paniz: Thanks again for listening. Until next time!