Introduction

As always, UNICEF is working towards a better future for young people and furthering the agenda, UNICEF launched its initiative – Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge. Generation Unlimited is a new partnership established by UNICEF to help adolescents and young people succeed. The goal is to make sure that every young person aged 10 – 24 is in some form of school, learning, training, or employment by 2030. Through Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge, 16 UNICEF country offices focused on identifying co-creating and supporting solutions that have the potential to deliver results at scale for young people, especially those in the greatest danger of being left behind.

By adopting a human-centered approach, youth were encouraged to understand problems and invent solutions faced by local communities. In Pakistan, the theme for the youth challenge was Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM). Three key areas focused on this challenge include:

  • Secondary-age education; Skills for learning.
  • Employability; and decent work.
  • Empowerment with a focus on girls.

The purpose behind this Celebration event on 29 April 2019 was:

  1. To celebrate the victory of the team The Red Code from Pakistan.
  2. To appreciate the efforts of all teams.
  3. To invite a large number of stakeholders to explore more working areas for teams as well as stakeholders.
  4. To invite policymakers to bring suitable changes in the community/country to bring advancement.
  5. To give awareness to adolescents and to bring them out of the bubble that created around them about menstruation.

Plan

The plan was to break menstruation-related myths and to inspire young women to feel empowered even while on their period by identifying the right menstrual hygiene practices to help them feel more comfortable and confident. Furthermore, GenU Youth Challenge campaign denies the belief that women need to take a break from the normal daily activities when they are menstruating.

The event celebrated the victory of “The Red Code” team who marked its name on the global map of innovative success through Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge platform and awarded with a seed funding of $20,000 with mentorship. To announce the success openly with the audience to overcome the myths attached to Menstruation and to speak up more for what is right versus what feels uncomfortable, to realize that there is no more shying away from righting a wrong that can be fixed with more effort.