My Sister's Dignity - Week of Shame

Millions of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa are dis-empowered by the simple biological process of menstruation. 

Menstruation is one of the most common and uniquely female experiences. Unfortunately, the reality is that around the world millions of girls and women struggle to manage their monthly periods. First periods are a very stressful time in any girl’s life, but add to this acute poverty and you have a seriously miserable situation. Many young girls are not provided with sanitary towels at home because their families cannot afford them and food takes priority. They may not even have underwear. 

Unable to afford or access proper menstrual products, many girls and women rely on crude, improvised materials like scraps of old clothing, pieces of foam mattress, toilet paper, leaves, and banana fibers to manage their menstruation – all of which are unhygienic, ineffective, and uncomfortable. 

According to UNICEF 1 out of 10 african girls skip or drop out of school due to their periods.Faced with frequent, embarrassing leaks and a susceptibility to recurrent infections, the impact is that millions of girls and women experience their monthly period  as something that prevents them from engaging in daily life – whether this is going to school or work, or carrying out their normal domestic responsibilities. 

A girl absent from school due to menstruation for four days of every 28 day cycle loses 13 learning days, the equivalent to two weeks of learning, every school term.  A survey of menstruating girls in Uganda found that “the biggest numbers of school dropouts are girls because of inconveniences during their menstrual periods.”

Educated girls are more likely to become empowered women; they are more likely to take control of their lives, have economic security, and healthier children who will in turn be more likely to be educated themselves.

As part of our 'My Sister's Dignity' campaign we hope to raise funding in 2016 to provide Zimbabwean school girls and Zimbabwean women in the rural areas with a solution. This solution being reusable sanitary towels. In turn ensuring 'my sister's health, education and dignity.