This essay is a finalist in the 2024 Retro Report Civic Engagement Challenge, a student contest supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
By Oorja Munot
If you walk past the old brick building to get to the restaurants on the corner of Century Blvd, you might miss it. The paint on the walls is almost peeling, and the windows are dusty from months of neglect. But step inside, and you’ll hear something unexpected, soft whispers, rushed discussions and ambitions too fragile to shout, after all it is a library. This place which is often overlooked has quietly become the center of my community’s fight to solve persisting problems.
When you walk around, you might hear students giving interviews for advocacy organizations, hosting letter-writing parties in small rooms, or planning events and community drives. The wooden tables, scratched and worn from years of use, witness the ideas shared within these walls. These are the moments where civic engagement begins and lives, moments too small for headlines in newspapers but powerful enough to shift the course of someone’s life.
It’s here that the Menstrual Equity Education Coalition (MEEC), the organization I began, found its voice. While doing research in this library, we discovered that 76% of students learn more about the biology of frogs than the human female body. Pushing forward the conversation around menstrual equity hasn’t always been easy. The stigma surrounding periods still makes so many people uncomfortable, but in this library, we confronted that discomfort head-on.
This library developed into a setting where we collaborate and gather to draft our menstrual health curriculum, share ideas, and strategize for our community’s future. The volunteers and editors at MEEC and the countless others who enter this library remind me every day that change starts with a whisper of an idea. And that whisper, when amplified, becomes the basis of change. This occurred for MEEC one evening, when we had finished drafting our first curriculum for schools. I looked around at the faces of the volunteers, and I could see their glowing ambition. This singular tiny hope is what has evolved into what MEEC is today.
To date, our curriculum has been approved by a general practitioner and we are now in the process of persuading schools to adopt it. Additionally, our week-long campaigns on social media have reached 800+ followers, and the coalition has grown to 75+ members with some partner organizations. The feedback from our teacher editors in response to the MEEC curriculum has been overwhelmingly positive, with them noting a shift in how they can better help students understand this topic. We are transitioning to making online menstrual health resources, and we plan to compile them into an app with our parent organization Equality Through Education.
The lesson I learnt in this quiet space is that civic engagement isn’t about making noise, instead it’s about listening. Listening to the stories of those who have been overlooked constantly. Listening to the needs of the people around us and collectively responding, not necessarily with grand speeches or promises, but with real action.
