Luna | Devpost

Screenshot of Directory 1
Screenshot of Directory 2
Screenshot of Menstruation Products Price Guide
Screenshot of Q&A Platform

Inspiration

Inspired by the period poverty prevailing in Mexico, one of the leading causes towards gender inequality and disease.

Mexico is a country where there is still a large taboo surrounding menstruation, which leads to a lack of understanding and many health issues, and more frequently than one would think even in death; in the south of the country, over 100 women still die yearly due to a lack of an accurate diagnosis as they are not adequately able to describe their ailments to doctors due to a lack of knowledge of their reproductive system.

What it does

Provides a platform for people with period to get support and clarify any doubts/worries they might have.

Firstly, it provides a platform where people with a period are able to ask questions, which will be answered by health experts and the community of users, helping them clarify their doubts while also giving them the confidence to talk about menstruation.

Secondly, it will provide a menstrual products guide including a brief description of the products and their estimated prices. This is particularly relevant in Mexico as the government recently passed a bill to remove the VAT from these products, a fact not all people with a period are aware of.

Finally, it also provides a directory of NGO's focused on helping women in different areas, including but not limited to menstruation issues.

How we built it

We used Kotlin for developing an Android app and used a noSQL database called firebase.

We also used ... and a lot of coffee.

Challenges we ran into

It was a big challenge for three men and one woman to tackle building an app oriented towards menstruation, as some concepts were hard for the men to wrap their minds around.

Another challenged we faced was figuring out the best way to turn our ideas into something that would be accessible and easy to use by the intended end-users, in this case being people with periods in lower classes. In order to do this, we also had to figure out which were the best tools to use to achieve this purpose.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of our teamwork and being able to apply or skills and knowledge to tackle such a crucial social issue in our country. In addition, one thing that was achieved in the last 24 hours of work was certainly to normalize menstruation among us, which in its own way is a start and we hope one of many success stories.

What we learned

We learned (mostly the men) about the challenges women face when menstruating and how big the taboo really is, particularly in Mexico and in Latinamerica. It was very interesting for the men to realize how big the "world of menstruation" really is, and what it means to live with it.

Another learning we had, was that no matter what you know or don't know, there is always something you can do to help the project thrive. There is a lot to do in addition to coding.