Project CARE does not begin with a lecture. It begins with a blank sheet of paper and a question: What do you already know? What are you not sure about? And what do you want to do about it?

In a recent campus workshop, a group of students spread a mind-map poster across a table and began filling it in together. Around the central question — why don't more people use reusable menstrual products? — branches grew: stigma, lack of awareness, fear of discomfort, cost assumptions, absence of peer role models. Each branch was followed by another question: what can we do?

The Power of Student-Led Analysis

When students identify the problem themselves, something fundamentally different happens. They do not just absorb information — they take ownership of it. The transition from passive recipient to active advocate is the core goal of CARE, and it starts at exactly this kind of table.

• Peer-led conversations convert more people than top-down awareness campaigns
• Students identify barriers that adult facilitators often overlook
• Brainstorming workshops surface local solutions tailored to the campus context
• CARE cohort members become the first visible reusable product users in their hostels

“We thought we were doing a workshop. By the end, we had a plan. And four of us had already decided to switch.”

- CARE cohort participant