Every year I choose a university student to accompany me on my win-a-trip journey, which is meant to highlight issues that deserve more attention. My 2024 winner was Trisha Mukherjee, a recent Columbia graduate and budding journalist — and with that, I’m handing the rest of the column over to her.
By Trisha Mukherjee, reporting from Pamplemousses, Mauritius.
When she was a teenager, Jossy Nation would collect water from a nearby river as the sun rose to wash the well-worn rags she used as sanitary pads, then lay them out to dry in a hidden spot.
But during the rainy season in her remote village in Nigeria, the fabric wouldn’t dry, and Ms. Nation, now 30, would be swallowed by panic. “I feel sick,” she said, recalling the stress of running out of usable rags. “Sometimes I have to use one rag for the whole 24 hours.”
Laser-focused on her education, Ms. Nation would push herself to go to school, even though some of her…
