Our vision is to provide accessible educational content, knowledge, and guidance to people who menstruate in Lebanon, regardless of their legal status. Grounded in a justice framework and informed by intersectional analysis, we aim to amplify home-grown tools and knowledge.
In our fight against period poverty and for menstrual justice, we have collaborated with various grassroots and community-led collectives and NGOs to organise tailored events with students, migrant workers, refugees, and other marginalised populations regardless of their legal status, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, and nationality.
Central to our practice is allowing knowledge to emerge through group conversation. Our awareness sessions provide education on menstruation and period products, offering insights into both reusable and disposable options, such as reusable pads, panties, menstrual cups, tampons, and pads. We also debunk common myths surrounding menstruation and address any questions or concerns participants may have.
Each session is tailored to the specific age group, from youth who have just started or are about to start menstruating, to postmenopausal women. While we typically organise sessions within homogenous age groups, we have also facilitated mother-daughter discussion circles, sparking intergenerational conversations about periods.
Our content provides factual information and raises awareness of common misconceptions around periods
Our Instagram page is also the best place to find out about our current campaigning activities.
Our #talk_about_it campaign spread awareness and helped to break taboos and normalise periods. We reached over 4000 people through our Instagram
We tackle period poverty by organising events around Lebanon, working closely with local organisations to bring these events to the places they are most needed. At each event participants are able to see a screening of the Jeyetna documentary directed by Evelina Llewellyn (co-founder of Jeyetna). Screenings are followed by a Q&A in a safe space where participants have the opportunity to reflect on the content and share their experiences, guided by a Jeyetna discussion facilitator.
When the space allows for it, we collaborate with Koun, an NGO providing yoga classes to caregivers and marginalised communities in Lebanon. The classes teach participants stretching and massage techniques to relieve period pain in a sustainable way.
To find out about future events, please follow our Instagram or get in touch via email.
Collaboration is a huge part of the way Jeyetna works and through our partners we are able to work with many more people. Over the years we have collaborated with many local and international NGOs and nonprofits.
Jeyetna has been supported with features in several media outlets such as L’Orient-le-Jour, BBC Arabic, The Independent, Mademoiselle, The New Arab, TV5Monde, The New humanitarian, MTV, Noovo, The Daily Star, Yourmiddleeast, Beirut City Guide, OHCHR and The World Sucks. (link to articles in the archives)
We also intervened at an MEPI-TLS gender workshop at the American University of Beirut in the Fall of 2021. Vanessa mentored MEPI students at the university to implement gender activities on campus from Fall 2022 to Spring 2024. These included a student-led conversation about menstruation and a pilot study to assess period poverty on campus with a solidarity products basket and surveys.
In June 2022 Jeyetna was invited as Youth Representative to open the first ever panel on menstrual hygiene management in the context of the United Nations 50th Human rights council in Geneva.
Jeyetna is based in Lebanon and we operate across the whole territory and with every community living in the country. Our social media presence targets a regional audience and people living in the diasporas.
The feminist collective Jeyetna was born through the efforts of our founding team members in 2021 in a context of total political and financial collapse in Lebanon. We decided to operate as feminist collective to bring an intersectional and politicised approach to period poverty through a menstrual justice lens. Our team is volunteer-based with a part-time project coordinator ensuring the completion of day-to-day tasks.
Jeyetna has been operating for three years thanks to individual financial donations, grants supporting grassroots organisations like the WeLead Program by Hivos and regional feminist grants like Doria Feminist Fund and Mediterranean Women’s Funds.
While period poverty is a structural issue which requires political solutions, having period products available in bathrooms at home, in the workplace or in schools and universities, just like toilet paper, can make a huge difference. You can also donate to support Jeyetna’s work.
We work with everyone regardless of race, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, disability and legal status. While most of our activities target women and people who menstruate, we have also worked with cisgender men. Period poverty is a political, societal, economic, communal and familial issue: cisgender men can also play a role in bursting the bubble of shame and secrecy surrounding menstrual experiences and their economic toll. It’s important for us that information is accessible to everyone to break down myths and facilitate open conversations that leave nobody behind.
We believe in a holistic and comprehensive approach to period poverty and menstruation that intersects with many aspects of life including politics, social justice and activism, the economy and labour market, the environment, and others.
We aim to reflect that through our partnerships and collaborations with sister organisations with similar values, other collectives, non-governmental organisations, community-led efforts and even university or school students.
Support can take many forms: through donations, spreading the word about our work to your circles, organising fundraising and/or documentary screening events in your areas. Don’t hesitate to reach out via our email to discuss any potential opportunities for support!
