From left: Sean McMahon and Aarin Palomares
Sean McMahon, a senior in public health from Millbrook, Alabama, and Aarin Palomares, a senior in public health and a fifth-year Master of Public Health student from Peachtree City, Georgia, want to decrease infection rates associated with lack of sanitary feminine hygiene products and create economic opportunity for women living in a refugee camp in Turkey. With Project Pad, they will work alongside local and international community partners to develop a curriculum that teaches proper feminine hygiene to the women. The partners will also implement Loving Humanity’s model, which gives women the raw materials to start a business manufacturing low-cost hygiene products.
“In recent years, refugee health has become a pertinent issue worldwide,” Palomares said. “Displaced populations see a higher risk to their health and are often stripped of necessities. We are both passionate about this population and wanted to address a common need. Not only do women face stigma because the topic of feminine hygiene is taboo, but they also lack the supplies to properly care for their needs.
“This is an issue we often take for granted here in the United States,” Palomares added. “As a public health student, I learned about these issues in class; but I wanted to do something about it.”
“I have learned a lot about displaced populations through UAB,” McMahon said. “I want to be a part of the solution to the problem.”