SHE Celebrates Menstrual Hygiene Day 2019

The host of the celebration

Welcome back to our annual coverage of Menstrual Hygiene Day! *Woo* *Woo* *Cheers* Yes, yes we are thrilled too. We have exciting news. This year SHE built a brand new girl’s room and we want to tell you all about it.

Let’s Get Into It!

For the first time, SHE partnered with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health to help promote their new national health campaign. The campaign is a pillar of support that focused on improving menstrual hygiene in schools through action and ending the stigma surrounding menstruation. This year’s theme, “Its time for action”, called for people to take action in their communities.

Following the theme, a brand new girls’ room was built in a primary school that serves over 1,200 girls. Not sure what girls’ rooms are? Well, girls’ rooms are safe havens that provide beds, sanitary products, menstrual pads, etc. For whom, you may ask? Yeah, you guessed it, for girls (Take notes, America)! Now more girls have daily access to pads, water, and other necessities so they can manage their periods while at school. What more could you want?

Well, we have more news! The celebration attracted over 10,000 people, which is double that of last year’s. Not to mention, an additional 3 million people listened and watched through radio talk shows and media coverage!

School Children watching performances

Let us give you some facts: Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) teaches women and girls how to manage their periods in a healthy and positive way so they can maintain full participation in school and work. Men and boys play essential roles in MHM and combating gender inequality. They can be allies in various ways, whether that be getting educated on menstruation or just giving moral support to their classmates.

During our festivities, girls and boys marched in solidarity against menstrual stigma and taboos. Soap opera actors graced the stage as they performed skits from their hit show.

Miss Rwanda 2019

Meghan Nimwiza’s Miss Rwanda, speech normalized menstruation and encouraged boys to support girls during their periods. We heard the testimony of a 15-year-old refugee from Tanzania who struggled with her period because her family could not afford to buy her pads. She struggled to play with her friends and focus in class until her teacher bought her a pad. One pad changed her life. The young lady calls for parents to take action and start conversations with their kids earlier rather than later.

John, SHE’s Managing Director; Ministry of Health Delegate; Director-General of Ngoma District; 15-year-old refugee girl from Tanzania (L to R)
Miss Rwanda 2019; John, SHE’s Managing Director; Ministry of Health Delegate; Director-General of Ngoma District (L to R)

The celebration was a clear success in breaking the silence around menstruation. We are grateful for all the support shown by the community including various media outlets, and organizations for helping spread the message. The active participation of organizations and outlets like Health Development and Performance (HDP), WHO, UFPA, Water Aid, BBC Rwanda, The New Times, and Radio Rwanda (just to name a few) make all the difference.

So, mark your calendars for May 28th next year because we’re hoping to see an even bigger turnout!

SHE Rwanda celebrates Menstrual Hygiene Day

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Our team in Rwanda celebrated Menstrual Hygiene Day with high school students at the Riviera Day School. Over 100 students joined us as we led a menstrual hygiene awareness session among girls and boys. The students were excited to be part of a global event and proudly wore menstrual cycle bracelets to show their support!

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#MenstruationMatters sign with Nadia and teen girls

Celebrate the first annual Menstrual Hygiene Day!

What are you doing on May 28th?

You can join us in celebrating the first annual Menstrual Hygiene Day. On this day, organizations from across the globe will be busting taboos associated with menstruation and menstrual hygiene so girls and women will no longer have to lose out on days of school and work, improve their health and well-being, and most importantly, reclaim their dignity.

You can join into the festivities too! You can join Nadia and Eloise (featured above) and  create your own #MenstruationMatters sign. Just print it out and take a picture of yourself with your reason why #MenstruationsMatters to you! Put it online (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) and let’s get #MenstruationMatters & #MenstrualHygiene trending on Twitter on MH Day! 

Share the Menstrual Hygiene infographic on your favorite social media platform and use these fact sheets as great conversation starters to get people talking about Menstrual Hygiene.

Menstrual Hygiene Day Infographic courtesy of WASH United

Image courtesy of WASH United. Download here: http://menstrualhygieneday.org/new-infographic/

 

 

 

HAHA Beat: SHE featured as a case study in recent UNESCO report

Guest Post from Global Health Intern Sereena Singh

Working with SHE as a Global Health Intern, I was lucky enough to be able to attend a remarkable and groundbreaking event that announced the publication of “Puberty Education and Menstrual Hygiene Management: Booklet 9”, a key document published by UNESCO in partnership with Proctor and Gamble. This is particularly exciting since SHE was included as a case study for our dual-pronged business approach and advocacy work to addressing menstrual hygiene at the school level.

The event included a first-hand account about the impact of the menstrual hygiene management crisis from a young woman from India. Ameira works for the YP Foundation in New Delhi, India, and did not learn about proper menstrual hygiene until she was 18 years old and attended a health workshop. She is now working with young girls and women in India on educating them about menstrual hygiene. UNESCO Director, Irina Bokova, stated that puberty should be a turning point and not a barrier for these girls. Menstrual hygiene management deserves the upmost attention to help keep girls in school, and feel confident about themselves.

I have been interning with SHE for almost 8 months now, and I’m proud to say that the work we have been doing and continue to do so has helped many women in Rwanda to become game-changers of menstrual hygiene management. This is a major feat in the ongoing battle that many other young women in developing countries face. With already precarious health and educational infrastructures in these countries, shining light on this issue and pulling these women out of ignominy is what will endow them with the confidence to overcome the fears and shames of menstruation. It is with highest hopes that this booklet serves as a reminder of how far we have come and how much further we need to go. While this publication represents a shining beacon of progression, we must continue to break the silence, foster confidence, and empower these amazing young women around the world.

As Joyce McFadden stated, “If a girl cannot feel at home in her own body, she cannot feel at home anywhere.” No young girl or woman should ever feel ashamed of herself because of her body, PERIOD.