We are delighted to share a blog by Team Glow&Grow, from Svitlo School. Team Glow&Grow is the Senior winner of the Gender Equality and/or Reducing Inequality category of the Global Social Leaders Global Goals Competition 2025-26.
Glow&Grow is an initiative dedicated to breaking the stigma surrounding girls’ health and menstruation by creating a safe, supportive environment where young women feel informed, confident and empowered.
To find out more about Glow & Grow, in addition to the blog below, head to the GSL Projects page.
Despite the war, distance, and doubt, our teen team united to launch ‘Glow&Grow,’ breaking the menstrual stigma in Ukrainian schools and proving that youth have the power to change the world.
Project Summary
What if your period starts at school, and there is nowhere to turn?
Imagine going to the bathroom in the middle of a school day and suddenly realising that your period has started. You look around, hoping to find a pad, but there is nothing. You might not even feel comfortable asking someone for one, especially around boys.
For many girls in Ukraine, this is a situation they know too well. Menstruation is still surrounded by stigma and shame in Ukraine. It is rarely discussed openly at schools, and finding menstrual hygiene products in school bathrooms is extremely uncommon.
As a team of teenage girls, this topic was very close to us because we had experienced situations like this ourselves. We wanted girls our age to feel more supported and, most importantly, to have access to the products and information they need.
That is what we have been working on for more than eight months through our project, Glow&Grow. By raising money through collaborations, we installed boxes with free menstrual hygiene products in two schools, together with posters explaining how to use and utilise them. We also organised educational lectures for girls and created an online course with a health coach and nutritionist for students at Svitlo Education.
As well as that, we built a successful blog on Instagram and TikTok and by posting educational videos and posts every day for six months, we managed to reach more than 60,000 views.
We are incredibly proud of how far Glow&Grow has come, but we are not stopping here. Now, we want to bring our boxes to more schools and continue using education and social media to break the stigma around menstruation in Ukraine.
The Journey
When our team took the plunge and decided to take part in GSL, we couldn’t even imagine the transformation we would go through along the way. From not knowing each other at all to becoming the closest team ever. We still remember our first meeting, when we had no idea what topic we would choose or how it would all work out. Eventually, we did it!
None of us had taken part in such an amazing social action programme before, but now we can confidently say that it was one of the best experiences we’ve ever had. While developing Glow&Grow, we learned something more than just how to work in a team and be a leader. We understood the challenge of creating change in the world when each of us comes from a different city because of the war, but we still tried to stay on track. Additionally, we felt a real sense of accountability on our shoulders and learned to be cautious about every step we took towards building a better community.
Every time we had a Glow&Grow meeting, even when we were tired or simply not in the “right” mood, we showed up, went with the flow, and tried to do our best.
This experience helped us understand that we are capable of making a difference, regardless of our age or gender. We are alive, we have legs and arms – and that is already more than enough to start making the world a better place.
Nevertheless, we faced some challenges along the way as well. When you are a student, it can be tough to combine studying and volunteering. However, this did not punish us or make us step away from the project – instead, it showed us that we needed to change our strategy: set working hours for our project and make more time for rest.
Through the Glow&Grow project, we also learned how to take care of our physical and mental well-being and understand the importance of healthy nutrition. We realized that these are integral foundations if we want to avoid burnout. Such small but crucially important steps help us maintain balance in life and stay motivated to move forward.
The Next Chapter
You know, once we heard that such a programme like GSL exist, we didn’t even have a desire to join. We thought: «Who even cares if you do something great and powerful for your own community?». But still, there was a tiny part of us that was ready to take on this responsibility and it was the best decision we have ever made. Yes, it can be hard sometimes. There will be moments when it seems we have no idea what to do. It’s the law of life, it will always be like that and we should be ready for it. However, it inevitably passes and we end up with a glorious result on our way.
If you have some concerns about whether you should try or not – you must definitely do it. Occasionally, merely one stage in your life can change everything. You will be grateful beyond comprehension for the rest of your days.
Let’s attempt, try, fail, win and create! We have only one life to make this world remember us and leave a footprint toward a better future.
