Free HerFlow School Tour brings period awareness to prepubescent girls
THE AVERAGE age for first-time menstruation is 12, though there have been reports of girls as young as eight taking this major step in their development. For the most part, girls are usually not sure what’s happening to their bodies when they start to experience the strange sensations and notice that their bodies are changing. For so many girls, having their period for the first time is a scary and foreign experience that they usually have to figure out with the shame of having messed up the back of their clothes. Sometimes it can be traumatic because it happens in public with the scrutiny and sometimes amusement of strangers.
Typically, parents are afraid to introduce the topic of periods to their young girls because they believe are not ready to hear about it or that they may not understand. This is a mistake because it leaves them unprepared for a very important and inevitable part of growing up. Even just talking about the genitalia is difficult for some parents because they try hard to not expose their children to the correct names for their body parts. Using words like ‘clitoris’, ‘vulva’, ‘urethra’, and even ‘anus’ makes parents uncomfortable. Some of them even believe that these are not words that children should know; they treat these words like expletives. This is why it is so important to teach children about their full bodies from early so that they are comfortable using proper language to describe their genitalia.
UNCOMFORTABLE WITH BODIES
The way we socialise girls leaves them unable to be comfortable about their bodies and unprepared to deal with the changes as they go through puberty. This is something Shelly-Ann Weeks notices on her Free HerFlow School Tour, which she currently conducts as part of her Period Awareness Month activities.
“We must stop keeping children in the dark about their bodies, especially girls. This is the main reason why I start every presentation with a session on anatomy. During this part of the conversation, we see how misinformed girls are about their bodies,” Weeks explains.
This is the third year that HerFlow has conducted presentations about periods in schools as part of period awareness activities, but this is the first year that Shelly-Ann Weeks and her team have decided to include primary schools.
“We have noticed that some of the girls have started menstruating much earlier than expected, so we recognised that we have to speak to them before their period starts so they can be better prepared,” said Weeks. In addition to the presentation, Weeks’ team also leaves menstrual products with all the students through partnerships with female hygiene brands LASCO Curves and Stayfree, as well as Cubbies Disposable Wipes.
“In addition to the conversation about anatomy, we also show the girls how to put on their pads, and there is also a discussion about hygiene. The Free HerFlow School Tour is supported by the United States Embassy. I am grateful to our partners for making this initiative possible,” explains the two-time author and activist.
As a part of the initiative, Weeks also donates copies of her newest book It’s My Body. Period. to guidance counsellors to be used as a reference in their follow-up conversations about periods.
The tour started on October 3 and will go on until November 9, covering about 30 schools across six parishes.