A Good Excuse

Do you need a good excuse to join Days for Girls Eugene Chapter on this third Sunday in January?  How about this?

When The Menstrual Cycle Becomes A Question Of Human Rights

United Nations Population Fund - Tue, 5 Jan 2016 07:46 GMT

Author: Ms Gina Din and Siddharth Chatterjee

 

Women in Meru County examine a menstrual cup. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The onset of menstruation is a landmark event in the life of a young woman. Yet many complications and challenges accompany such an event. One in 10 adolescent girls miss school and eventually drop out due to menstruation-related issues.

2016 marks the start of the new Sustainable Development Goal’s target 6.2 and provides reason for optimism, recognizing as it does the need to provide “adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all” with “special attention to the needs of women and girls”. 

Figures from Kenya’s Ministry of Education show that a girl in primary school loses 18 learning weeks out of 108 weeks in a year during her menses. Within 4 years of high school the same girl losses 156 learning days equivalent to almost 24 weeks of learning.

Overall, studies estimate that 61 per cent of girls miss school annually due to lack of menstruation hygiene facilities in their primary schools, and approximately 3.5 million learning days are lost every month due to menstruation. 

The beneficial link between female education and lifetime health has never been in doubt; a better-educated girl takes better control of her life.  She has healthier and fewer children. Moreover educated women participate in the labour market and eventually lift households out of poverty, with these benefits transmitting across generations. 

Conversely,low education, poor health and nutrition have a magnified impact on the next generation, as malnourished girls become mothers at higher risk of maternal mortality, and of bearing low birth-weight babies. 

One of the reasons the benefits to society of educated girls are not accruing is because communities have been slow in removing manacles such as the inaccessibility of sanitary protection, the social taboos related to menstruation, and the culture of silence that surrounds menstruation, especially in schools. 

Lack of access to sanitary protection and towels disempowers girls, as they have to stay at home to avoid staining their clothes with blood in public. The cost of sanitary ware and towels is beyond the reach of many young women and girls, with most ending up missing school altogether during their menses. 

The government of Kenya is allocating resources towards providing sanitary towels in schools.  While the allocation to the Ministry of Education to purchase the towels in 2011 was Sh. 340 million, the current financial year’s allocation is Sh. 400 million.  

The government must act upon the 2013 resolution by the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) urging partner states to waive taxes on sanitary pads so as to increase their availability and affordability for young girls.  

Poverty underpins many girls’ lack of access to disposable sanitary towels. These cost between 65 and 120 Kenyan Shillings (US${esc.dollar}{esc.dollar}0.79–${esc.dollar}{esc.dollar}1.45) and are unaffordable to families earning the average Kenyan daily income of just above US${esc.dollar}{esc.dollar}1 per day. A tax break would greatly help.  

We must see this as a violation of basic human rights when girls stay away from school because they fear the shame attributed to their menstruation or because they don’t have the means to maintain a healthy hygiene. Girls must no longer continue using old rags, towels, paper from their school books or even dirt or leaves to manage their bleeding.  

For a phenomenon that societies know will repeat itself unfailingly every month, the prevarication in developing concrete responses is very disappointing.   

While adolescence is the time when girls should begin transiting into adults and shift from dependency to interdependency within their society, almost two out of three know nothing about menstruation until they start their menses, usually a traumatic experience. 

As we celebrate a new year, the best gift we can give our girls is an action-plan backed resolution in 2016 that this will no longer be their lot.  Sanitary pads or menstrual cups must be priced reasonably.  

Besides the obvious reproductive tract-related risks those methods present, these humiliating measures also mean that girls are unable to go about their daily lives. The situation for these girls becomes even worse when they are faced with poor sanitary facilities which prevents them from keeping good hygiene.

School-based sexual education programmes need to teach adolescent girls and boys about puberty and menstrual hygiene. These can be linked to other age-appropriate instruction about the risks of early marriage and preventing pregnancy, coupled with other life-skill–building exercises, to help them negotiate healthy adolescence.

There’s no force more powerful for transforming a society than an educated girl.  Any steps taken to eliminate circumstances that keep girls out of school can only be beneficial to our collective future.

Ms Gina Din, the Founder and CEO of the Gina Din group, is a businesswoman from Kenya specializing in strategic communications and public relations. She was named CNBC outstanding businesswoman of the year for East Africa 2015 as well as 40 most influential voices in Africa.  Siddharth Chatterjee is the UNFPA Representative to Kenya.

Inconceivable!

Our next Days for Girls Eugene work day is Sunday, January 17th.  We are at Our Sewing Room at 5th and Main in Springfield from 10 to 5.  Come for as much time as you have available.  If you'd like to sew or serge, it's best to bring your machine if you have one, and an extra bobbin.  We ask everyone to bring a (labelled) pair of sharp scissors, and maybe a seam ripper.

In 2015, our group filled requests for 235 kits, plus 15 additional shields and 470 additional liners. Looking at just the 235 kits we sent out in 2015, and based on the average kit life span of 3 years, our efforts will give back 42,300 days to girls in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ghana.  These are days that otherwise they would most likely spend isolated from friends and family, not able to attend school or work.  These girls will no longer be targets of unscrupulous men (including their teachers and school principals) offering to trade sexual favors for feminine hygiene supplies.  These young women will be able to continue their educations, rather than being forced to drop out of school (and often into early marriages) because of absenteeism.  As they continue their schooling, they will improve the economic situations of their families, their communities and their futures.

Our chapter relies on the generosity of people who donate supplies, money and/or their precious time and skills.  Thank you sincerely for the part you played in changing the lives of those 235 young women in Africa!

Here's an eye-opening article about how some different cultures view menstruation:

All The Inconceivable Ways Women Deal With Their Periods Worldwide.. And How To Help

Menstruation is inarguably a natural part of a woman’s health cycle, but for those who live in underserved areas, it’s their most dreaded time of the month. 

Due to a lack of access to sanitary products, girls are often forced to miss school and low-income women are more susceptible to infections and other devastating consequences. In places where women’s bodies are viewed with suspicion, damaging social stigmas and myths cast them away from the community, limiting their job options and social interactions, which inevitably takes an incalculable socioeconomic, physical and mental toll on their lives. 

This gender issue had its moment recently on Menstrual Hygiene Day, but advocates worldwide are still continuing to fight to break taboos, and do away with damaging menstruation myths.

Here are some of the unfair ways women have to deal with their periods worldwide -- and what’s being done about it.

1. In Many Countries, Girls Cut Up Pieces Of Mattress Or Use Twigs and Leaves As Pads, Causing Infection

Costing about 60 cents a pop, a package of sanitary pads, even the cheapest kind, is far too expensive for the average girl in Kenya to purchase, according to Project Humanity. As a result, menstruating girls will resort to using rags, leaves, newspaper, bits of mattress stuffing or even mud, to fashion some form of protection to use when they have their periods. In addition to being uncomfortable and ineffective, these slipshod sanitary methods also raise health concerns. 

To ensure girls get the protection they need, and don’t have to miss school just because they have their periods, Femme Internationalprovides kits to girls in East Africa that equip them with all the supplies they need. Each kit contains a menstrual cup or reusable pads, a bowl for washing the reusable cup, a small towel, a bar of soap and a handheld mirror. 

2. In Parts of Japan, Women Can’t Hold Traditionally Male Jobs Like Sushi Chef Because Menstruation Causes "Imbalance"

You’d probably be more likely to find endangered Bluefin tuna on a menu than a name of a female sushi chef.

As tradition dictates, women have been excluded from the field because they menstruate, Yoshikazu Ono, son of a famed Japanese sushi chef told The Wall Street Journal back in 2011.

“To be a professional means to have a steady taste in your food, but because of the menstrual cycle women have an imbalance in their taste, and that’s why women can’t be sushi chefs,” Ono glibly told the news outlet.

Proving that the only “imbalance” is the way in which they’re treated, women in Japan, and in other parts of globe, are fishing their way into the male-dominated field.

Back in 1999, a law mandating equality in hiring and lifting a ban on women working past 10 p.m. has helped level the playing field in Japan, The New York Times reported. To create a new model for women, a businessman opened up a sushi restaurant in Japan in 2011 that hires only female staff, the Journal reported.

3. In Parts Of Nepal, Menstruating Girls Are Banished To Dark Rooms

Though it was outlawed in 2005, the chaupadi tradition -- which involves isolating menstruating girls for a week -- still persists in rural villages in the western Nepal, according to Women eNews.

These women and girls are typically sent to live in a shed during this period, where they have minimal protection from the elements, can develop life-threatening illnesses and have little to no human contact.

Determined to put an end to the practice, Rupa Chand Shah teaches an awareness course, which she encourages girls to attend even while they’re menstruating, and hopes her work will help abolish chaupadi, according to Reuters.

4. Right Here In the U.S., Homeless Women Say Getting Their Periods Is One Of The Worst Struggles

Nearly every pre-menopausal woman needs them, but tampons and sanitary pads often top the list of what women’s shelters lack most, Al Jazeera reported earlier this year. The items are pricey and supporters often don’t think to donate them. 

Exacerbating the issue is the fact that homeless women also often don’t have access to clean showers, which makes it extra challenging to remain clean and free of infection while menstruating. 

To help homeless women in need, Distributing Dignity is one of a number of nonprofits that focuses its efforts on doling out feminine hygiene products to shelters in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Find out more about Distributing Dignity and how you can get involved here. 

5. Menstruation Is A "Strict Secret" In Malawi

The shame surrounding getting your period is so pervasive in Malawi that parents simply don’t talk to their kids about it, according to UNICEF.

Girls often glean what little information they can from their aunts, who teach them how to fashion sanitary pads from old clothes and warn them not to talk to boys while they’re menstruating.

UNICEF’s Menstrual Hygiene Management program aims to break through the taboos and provide girls with the education and the resources they need to manage their periods comfortably and safely. The aid group builds sanitary facilities in schools that provide girls and boys with privacy, doles out sanitary pads to adolescent girls and has organized “mother groups” to teach girls about menstruation.

6. In Bolivia, Girls Are Told To Keep Pads Unseen And Out Of The Trash. They’re Even Led To Believe It Can Cause Cancer. 

There’s still so much humiliation surrounding the issue of menstruation in Boliva that girls are urged, even by teachers, to keep their used sanitary pads far away from the rest of the trash.

Traditional beliefs hold that disposing their pads with other garbage could lead to sickness or cancer, according to UNICEF. Even when there’s a designated place to discard of menstrual pads, girls often collect them in their bags during the school day and to wait until they get home get rid of them.

After investigating 10 schools in Bolivia, UNICEF identified the main challenges menstruating girls face, including experiencing feelings of shame and having limited access to private restrooms, among other issues. The organization formed an action plan that would vastly improve the environment at schools for girls. It encouraged extensive menstrual education, increasing access to absorbent materials and upgrading sanitation facilities. 

7. In Parts Of India, Women And Girls Are Told Their Periods Can "Pollute" Food, Like Spoiling A Pickled Vegetable

Folklore has some girls and women in India convinced that if they handle a pickled vegetable while they’re menstruating, it will spoil just by their touch, according an op-ed in The New York Times. But it’s not just the green vegetable they’re admonished to stay away from.

Women and girls are also told to avoid cooking anything altogether, since they can “pollute” the food.

To set the record straight among this demographic, Menstrupedia aims to dispel the harmful myths women and girls are subjected to in India through its engaging multimedia content.

8. In Afghanistan, Women Are Told They’ll Become Infertile If They Shower During Menstruation, Which Takes A Toll On Their Dignity

In Afghanistan, there’s a misconception that washing your genitals while you’re menstruating can lead to “gazag,” which means become infertile, according to Afghan Zaria.

To intervene early on, and teach girls safe hygiene habits, UNICEF’s WASH program incorporates menstrual hygiene facilities and teaches proper menstrual practices in schools in Afghanistan.

9. Nearly Half Of Girls In Iran Believe Menstruation Is A Disease

There’s still so much stigma and misinformation surrounding menstruation in Iran that 48 percent of girls there think that it’s a disease, according to a UNICEF study.

Despite the longstanding misconceptions, interventions have proven to work.

A study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that when girls in Iran were exposed to menstrual education, they took the lessons to heart and 61.6 percent of them started bathing when they had their periods.