Hygiene education and management

In February, I am facilitating a hygiene talk for young girls in low income communities and public schools. Adolescence is a pivotal transitional period that requires special attention to ensure progress for all girls especially the most vulnerable, and poses a unique opportunity to break inter generational cycles of poverty and to transform gender roles. The onset of puberty and menstruation can affect a girl in many ways therefore guidance on how to manage their menses and personal hygiene with confidence is needed. 

Meeting the hygiene needs of all adolescent girls in all settings – both inside and away from the household – is a fundamental issue of human rights, dignity, and public health. Every girl should be able to learn, play, and safeguard her own health without experiencing stress, shame, or unnecessary barriers to information or supplies during menstruation. 

Every child – including every girl – has the right to a quality education, enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child 30 years ago. The Sustainable Development Goal targets recognise that building safe, inclusive and effective learning environments is fundamental to increasing children’s access to education and improving learning outcomes. But nearly one third of schools around the world still lacked basic water, sanitation and hygiene services in 2016. For girls, appropriate WASH facilities are a particularly important part of ensuring their safe and healthy participation in school. WASH facilities have both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors for girls’ education. Girls can struggle to attend and stay in school if they do not have safe, single-sex and hygienic facilities, which are essential for menstrual hygiene management (MHM).

There is no doubt that insufficient, incorrect information regarding menstruation is often a cause of unnecessary restrictions in the daily normal activities of the menstruating girls creating various psychological issues. Studies show that:  

• School attendance: 1 in 10 girls in Africa miss school during menses (UNESCO). 

• Access to hygiene products: a large number of girls leave school for lack of proper hygienic absorbents •  Health: Vaginal infections are 70% more likely when using unhygienic materials. 

Besides, the lack of knowledge and awareness also lead to some poor personal hygienic practices during menstruation leading to many reproductive tract infections. The silence around menstruation, as well as the lack of access to proper education, sanitation facilities and hygienic absorbents in rural communities directly affects women’s and adolescent girls’ self-esteem, health and education. Poor menstrual hygiene causes great impact in increased vulnerability to reproductive tract infections (RTI). Currently millions of women and girls in low income communities suffer from RTI and infection is transmitted to the offspring. Women having knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene are less vulnerable to RTI and its consequences. This can be tackled if young girls are taught proper hygiene management and have access to good sanitation facilities and hygienic absorbents. Various studies indicate that a huge information gap exists among rural and urban adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene. This is not supposed to be so as access to proper information and services on menstrual hygiene shouldn’t be a privilege but a right for all girls regardless of their economic background, age or religious status. 

RATIONALE

It’s about health.  It’s about helping girls everywhere to manage menstruation in a way that doesn’t put them at risk of infections that are at best avoidable. More specifically, it’s about reproductive health, and keeping girls healthy through puberty so that they have a greater chance of surviving childbirth, and so that their future babies are born healthy. Fundamentally, it is also about keeping girls safe from early and unwanted pregnancy by making sure that they have access to information that helps them understand the connection between menstruation and fertility. 

In Nigeria, especially in the rural areas, it’s about girl’s education.  It’s about going to school each month while they have their periods, when they didn’t before.   It’s about staying in school, rather than dropping out, when they reach menarche.  It’s about ensuring a generation and future generations of educated and empowered women who had the tools to overcome cultural taboo about menstruation, and made the choice to go to school. 

And more than that, it’s about an equitable chance at well-being for girls everywhere.  It’s about girls being able to live their lives without fear of stigma or shame one week out of every month and then every day after.  It’s about girls not being made to feel inferior, impure, disgusting, or unworthy – and ensuring that they grow up proud, confident, strong women that help lead their communities. 

In most developed societies like the US, there are various menstruation absorbents and disposal choices for women and girls from the use of tampons to sterile pads.  It changes everything for a girl that she has access to cheap, safe, undetectable methods for catching blood flow every month. But the reality in most low income communities even within Plateau state is that thousands of girls still struggle to manage menstruation and overcoming this struggle is essential to health, education, and well-being.The extent to which this singular course will go in affecting the self-esteem of these girls as well as it’s positive effect on the generality of the state overtime can never be overemphasized. Our prosperity as a Nation will be determined on how well we prepare and tackle pertinent health challenges of particularly our society’s reproductive age. 

SOLUTION 

Providing a safe and effective learning environment for women and girls. A safe and effective learning environment means giving women and young girls information and education on hygiene and menstruation management. It also involves providing access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in schools, especially when it comes to adolescent girls’ education.