The menses drama

Did you know girls across Africa are missing school because they don’t have the products or information to manage their menstrual cycle( periods). In Kenya, the average girl misses at least 3 days of school per month. This can have serious consequences, like falling behind in class, dropping out altogether, or having to use unsafe substitutes for pads.

In Kenya alone, two-thirds of our girls and women can not afford sanitary towels. Many young females are afraid to tell their parents mostly when they start their menses. They are terrified to the point they use stuffed bits of cloth and cotton inside themselves to try to stem the bleeding.

Majority are too frightened to tell their parents what is happening, they keep quiet. They spend their school days terrified, that blood would leak out, exposing them to ridicule from their classmates. This makes the girls skip school during these times of the month. This experience is common across Kenya and the rest of the continent. As many as one in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa are missing school during menstruation.

Just a decade ago, there was little discussion of the challenges girls in sub-Saharan Africa faced with their periods. In recent years, a groundswell of attention by non-profits, development organizations, and governments means there is a growing consensus: girls should have access to the products they need without shame or secrecy. Helping girls is difficult when a dearth of research means there’s still so much we don’t know about how periods affect their educational and social outcomes. Luckily, emerging research is beginning to change that.

In Kenya, 3/4 of girls and women are unable to afford sanitary pads. When people earn less than two bucks a day, is a family going to [get] bread, milk, and food or a girl’s sanitary pads. The majority of residents in urban slum areas will argue like that. The situation is so dire that study showed 1 out of 10 15-year-old girls were having sex to get money to pay for sanitary ware.

Some use a cup or used rags and mattress stuffing when they couldn’t afford pads, causing infections and painful sores more than once. The Kenyan government is considered a global leader on access to sanitary products. It repealed added tax on pads and tampons in 2004 to lower the price – a tax that still exists in the US – and since 2011, with the help of ZanaAfrica, the government has allocated money to assist in the distribution of sanitary pads. But this program hasn’t always been implemented well. Sometimes pads are stolen or supplies run out. Also, it’s unclear whether the program has improved school attendance in Kenya.

During preliminary research, done by a local Tv channel, they found one girl who knew more about Ebola, of which there have been fewer cases in Kenya than she did about menstruation. Other girls in the same study thought women could only become pregnant by having sex during menstruation. Access to sanitary products is of limited help if schools don’t have the supporting infrastructure, such as separate bathrooms for girls with doors and locks for privacy. In rural areas of Kenya, only a small percentage of schools have a private place for girls to change their sanitary products. Many teachers are also uncomfortable talking about or teaching menstruation. Only half of Kenyans girls say they openly discuss menstruation at home presenting a missed opportunity for future education.

The Kenyan government, with the support of Unicef, is developing national guidelines for menstrual hygiene in schools, including proper handwashing facilities and places to dispose of sanitary products. This will hopefully mean that all girls can laugh more, at the idea that a period is not something to be embarrassed about. Or, breaking the period taboo and making menstruation something that should be celebrated and not shamed.