The Sunday News
Hazel Marimbiza, Sunday Life Correspondent
MENSTRUAL Hygiene Day is an annual awareness day which was held every 28 May to help build awareness about the fundamental role on good menstrual hygiene.
At least 500 million women and girls globally lack adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management (MHM). Inadequate WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) facilities, particularly in public places, such as in schools, workplaces or health centres, can pose a major obstacle to women and girls.
The lack of toilets with doors that can be safely closed, or the unavailability of means to dispose of used sanitary pads and water to wash hands, means that women and girls face challenges in maintaining their menstrual hygiene in a private, safe and dignified manner.
A growing body of evidence shows that girls’ inability to manage their menstrual hygiene in schools, results in school absenteeism, which in turn, has severe economic costs on their lives and on the country.
The challenge menstruating girls and women face is often less tangible than simply the availability of infrastructure, and is rooted in social norms and beliefs. In many cultures, menstruating women are considered impure and are systematically excluded from participating in every-day activities, such as education, employment, and cultural and religious practices.
Moreover, the taboos and stigmas attached to menstruation lead to an overall culture of silence around the topic, resulting in limited information on menstruation and menstrual hygiene. Such misinformation can have ramifications on the health and dignity of girls and women. A recent World Bank Group (WBG) study examining the complex relationship between water and gender, ‘The Rising Tide: A New Look at Water and Gender’, indicates that a disregard of menstrual hygiene needs serves to entrench the lower status of women and girls.
Given the multiple challenges women and adolescent girls face, it is evident that promoting menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is not only a sanitation matter; it is also an important step towards safeguarding the dignity, bodily integrity and overall life opportunities of women and girls.
In line with their overall commitment to promoting gender equality, different non-profit organisations in Zimbabwe are engaged in furthering the MHM agenda. The Real Open Opportunities for Transformation Support (ROOTS), a grassroots organisation that has been combating child marriages and gender-based violence in Zimbabwe, has embarked on a campaign to ensure the sustainable provision of sanitary pads for girls in rural areas.
ROOTS has stepped in to help give pads to school girls in areas such as Mazowe, Bindura, Chivi, Zaka, Lupane and Harare. ROOTS programs officer Ms Sandra Muzama said girls need pads in order to further their education.
“In our findings period poverty is a catalyst for girls failing to attain a good education as some will stay at home when on their period to avoid embarrassment in the event that they soil themselves. Also adolescents and young people engage in transactional sex for money to buy essentials such as pads. The sex is usually unprotected as they have limited negotiation power because of their vulnerability. Having seen the period poverty that is inherent in our communities we saw the need to provide sanitary wear to bridge this gap,” said Ms Muzama.
Talia Women’s Network (TWN) has also stepped in by donating CHAYIL Reusable Cloth Pads to disadvantaged girls and women. Women across the nation of Zimbabwe have benefited — Harare, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Hwange, Chipinge, and Chimanimani.
Mrs Saliwe Mutetwa-Zakariya, director at TWN said giving girls free sanitary wear will enable them to attend school.
“Two of the major reasons why girls miss school are lack of appropriate menstrual hygiene products and dysmenorrhoea (painful periods). Our pads have benefited the schoolgirls by providing them with a safe, hygienic and environmentally friendly solution to help them manage their monthly periods. Girls resort to using rags, tissue paper and other unhygienic materials when they do not have access to pads. With the CHAYIL Reusable Cloth Pads, girls don’t have to worry much and these can be used for up to 18 months with proper care,” said Mrs Zakariya.
In a bid to tackle period problems, TWN has come up with ways to alleviate the stress girls or women may face during this time.
“In addition to providing the pads, we also have a Menstrual Health and Hygiene curriculum, which talks about many things related to periods such as breaking the myths and taboos and more importantly how to identify and deal with irregular periods and period pain. So I would like to believe that our intervention has made girls love their periods and given them more knowledge and understanding on the subject of menstrual health, in addition to supplying the products. Culturally, we don’t talk openly about menstruation and periods, so we create a platform for open discussion and sharing for the girls,” said Mrs Zakariya.
While these organisations’ efforts are appraisable, a lot still needs to be done to end period poverty.
Gender advocate Ms Mercy Ncube said while MHM programmes are starting to be more rigorously evaluated, the available evidence base is incomplete.
“For policymakers to develop and implement successful MHM interventions, they will need to prioritize data-driven learning and invest in MHM research. For example, the Menstrual Practice Needs Scale (MPNS-36) is the first validated tool that allows researchers and practitioners to measure quantitatively how menstrual management practices and experiences are perceived by menstruators, thus providing critical data to design interventions that take into consideration actual experiences. Most studies have been qualitative, looking at the practices of the menstruators, for example, what products they are using, rather than at whether those practices are satisfying their actual needs,” said Ms Ncube.
She also highlighted that menstrual health programming must ensure that girls and women have the knowledge, materials, infrastructure, and enabling environment to manage their menstruation.
Ms Ncube said this need cuts across programming for WASH, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and gender equality.
“The linkages are especially evident when looking at sustainable development goals 3 (good health and well-being), 5 (gender equality), and 6 (clean water and sanitation), where integration is quite obviously needed. In other words, the funding has to take an ecosystem approach, realizing that a single intervention is rarely enough to create lasting change,” she said.
She added that by incorporating MHM components into existing programs, it is possible to amplify the impact that even small investments can make. -@HazelMarimbiza
