By: Emery R.
In order to have a frank and open
discussion with someone, you can’t beat around the bush; you have to be blunt
and direct. So, I’m just going to go ahead and say it,
“We
need to talk about periods.”
Or
more specifically, we need to talk about periods or menstruation in developing
countries.
As American women there are certain
things that many of us tend to take for granted, one of them being our access
to feminine hygiene products. If you go to the nearest Target, it is 100%
guaranteed that there will be an aisle containing pads, tampons, menstrual
cups, and virtually everything you need for that time of the month. There are
apps that you can download onto your smartphone that allow you to track your
cycle, and send you that oh-so-cheery notification,
“You
have one day remaining before your next expected period.”
However,
in lesser developed countries, particularly in rural areas, a lot of women and
girls don’t have access to the bright boxes of feminine hygiene products that
are crammed onto the shelves of pharmacies and retail stores here in the U.S.
Instead of pads and tampons, many females use materials like old rags, mattress
padding, and even tree bark. Whatever is available, and whatever works. These items
can be dirty, they generally contain bacteria, and they are also very irritating
to the skin. They can be exceedingly harmful to a woman’s genital area, causing
infections that fall on the spectrum of mild to serious.
Besides
physical harm, using such materials can also cause great embarrassment. Because
they are extremely absorbent, using items like corn husks and newspaper often
results in leakage onto furniture and clothing. In countries where menstruation
is highly stigmatized, women and girls are harassed when this happens. For
example, sometimes school girls are teased by classmates and even teachers for staining
their uniforms. In lesser developed countries, many girls miss school for
a few days every month because of their periods. In Ethiopia, this applies to
about 50% of all schoolgirls. Girls who miss that much school each year often
drop out. In fact, 10% of African girls will quit school because of problems
related to menstruation.
When
girls quit school, they miss crucial opportunities. However, the disadvantage
isn’t just limited to them; their countries miss out as well. Investing in
women and girls garners a huge return. For example, when 10% more girls go to
school, a country’s GDP increases an average of 3%. I believe that we need to
keep girls in school. We need to de-stigmatize menstruation for the good of
every woman and every girl in lesser developed countries, so that they can
“rise up,” as that Hamilton song
goes.
So,
what progress is being made?
Well,
world leaders are finally realizing how important it is to talk about
menstruation. They are trying to establish an open dialogue in order to gain
better insight into this problem. Additionally, numerous non-governmental
organizations are raising money to send feminine hygiene items and reproductive
education teachers to the more peripheral areas of the developing world. These
NGOs are also trying to get men to join the discussion on menstruation. The
reality is that most girls live in a patriarchal society, and so we need some
men in our corner if we want to truly solve this problem.
In
addition to global dialogue and getting men involved, many innovative ideas,
products, and technologies have been brought to lesser-developed countries in
an effort to provide safe, convenient, and reusable alternatives to the more
rudimentary materials women and girls are using during their periods. In
Rwanda, a company called Sustainable Health Enterprises is teaching women to
make pads out of banana trunk fibers. A company called BeGirl makes reusable
underwear with a mesh pocket that can be filled with any available absorbent
material. In India, women’s self help groups buy machines that allow them to
make 200-250 pads per day.
You
might be wondering, “If I’m not the founder of a non-profit organization, or
the owner of a successful socially responsible company, what can I do to help?”
No worries, most of us are in the same boat.
You
can help by doing your best not to stigmatize menstruation. Don’t make it out
to be something scary or overly terrible, just talk about it as calmly and
clearly as possible. Also, if the opportunity comes up, take the chance to
educate and include boys in the menstruation discussion. You don’t need to give
them all of the gory details, but making it a “secret girl thing” creates
stigma, and excludes males from a conversation in which their help, alliance,
and input is potentially valuable. Communication is key. As a wise person once
said, you can’t accomplish anything without it.
If you wan to learn more, you can
check out some of the articles that I read while researching this article. They
are below.
"10 Reasons to Invest in Women and Girls." Share
America. Share America, 14 Mar. 2016. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.
Aizenman, Nurith. "People Are Finally Talking About The Thing
Nobody Wants To Talk About." NPR.
NPR, 16 June 2015. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.
Mackey, Patricia. "Talking Menstrual Hygiene in Developing
Countries." Borgen
Magazine. The Borgen Project, 1 June 2014. Web.
11 Sept. 2016.
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