Many women and girls in Nigeria have no access to menstruation hygiene products and information due to limitations caused by cultural and religious taboos. Lacking access to proper menstruation hygiene, they resultantly practice poor menstrual hygiene which could cause physical health risks that mostly have links to reproductive and urinary tract infections. In order to address this situation – period poverty – the Abuja Hub of Global Shapers Community created awareness through the Pad and Pant Project, by holding sessions on essential facts concerning menstruation.
Period poverty is a situation that is mostly common for women and girls in low and middle-income nations, who resolve to using rags, tissue papers, and many other unhygienic products in place of proper menstrual hygiene products due to lack of money. This poor menstrual hygiene practice could not only lead to complicated health risks and poor educational outcomes. There are many other factors that fuel the escalation of period poverty asides being financially handicapped.
The Abuja hub reached out to 50 secondary school girls in Kuje, Abuja.
One of the factors that fuels improper menstrual hygiene is the consideration of puberty discussions as a taboo in Africa. Given this belief, many parents and teachers rarely address the topic, ignoring the education of issues concerning reproductive health with teenagers and adolescents. On most occasions, there are cultural or religious reasons behind lack of awareness. Marking Menstrual Hygiene Day on June 4, 2022, the Abuja Hub of the Global Shapers Community made efforts to improve menstrual hygiene awareness and enable access to products in Kuje Area Council, Abuja.
The Abuja Hub, delivering several local initiatives for the promotion of menstrual health and hygiene, taught about 50 secondary school girls in Kuje Area Council how to produce reusable sanitary pads through the Pad and Pant Project that has been designed for the specific purpose of educating secondary school girls on the proper management of their menstrual cycle, with easy access to affordable menstrual hygiene products one of which includes the making of reusable menstruation products, and the three R’s of waste management – recycle, reuse and reduce – for the enforcement of menstrual hygiene sustainability.
Through the Pad and Pant Project girls can make reusable pads.
A focus group discussion was held during which some of the schoolgirls revealed their feelings of impurity when on their periods; they feel limited to movements and involvement in a variety of activities. The statement of the girls further unveiled the many misconceptions and taboos that shroud menstruation in many parts of Nigeria with violations to rights of women and girls to privacy, bodily integrity, equality and freedom through degradation and inhumane treatments which they condone.
Having had ideas about the approach of Nigeria and Africa overall towards menstrual hygiene, the Abuja Hub presented significant facts regarding menstruation and likely occurrences during menstrual cycle, and instructions to participants on procedures to making reusable sanitary pads. To help the girls recreate what they have learnt, the Pad and Pant Project gave them a pad and pant kit with supplies and a soap for the promotion of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). Volunteers of the Pad and Pant Project felt fulfilled for learning and teaching a younger generation proper menstrual hygiene.
UNICEF says a woman menstruates for a total of forty years.
According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), a woman’s menstruation lasts for a total of forty years of her life, the approximate length of time for which many girls and women are left to manage their periods with lack of access to proper menstruation products and endure its negative/bias impacts on their learning, health, wellness, and happiness. The absence of some participants during the sessions in school lessons contributes to the reports that asserts that Nigerian girls miss an average of 24 percent of a school year. Also, to purchase menstrual products, some schoolgirls exchange sex for money, causing more risk of sexual and gender-based violence.
Related Link
UNICEF: Website
