It’s a problem for EC girls. Period
The Siyahluma Project Group works innovatively to improve the menstruation conversation
Girls around the world, and particularly i n developing countries, dread menstruating. They can’t get proper sanitary wear and, even if they could, they often don’t have underwear to hold pads in place. Many school bathrooms are unhygienic, and some schools don’t have running water for girls to keep their hands and bodies clean.
Ahead of Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28, we asked Lindsay Kelland of Rhodes University about the Siyahluma Project Group, which is working to change the discussion on menstruation. learners. We also formed a partnership to create reusable sanitary kits. That was when Siyahluma was born.
We initially heard about problems with access to sanitary products from a participant in the Young Women’s Dialogues at Rhodes’s community engagement office. But we knew that we could only sustainably address the problems in our particular context by conducting a needs assessment in the Eastern Cape because there wasn’t much information about these issues. We only found one South African study, dealing with KwaZulu-Natal, that had anything to do with schools or schoolgirls. completed the survey indicated that they don’t often have these conversations with their mothers because it is inappropriate to talk about sexuality. It’s often deemed taboo to speak to men: young girls report wanting to talk to their fathers, boyfriends or male friends to help them understand what is happening to them, but they can’t because of this.
What we found when opening up these spaces for conversations in schools with younger children was that both males and females are keen to talk, learn and have a lot of questions about menstruation. A grade 7 boy even asked: “Is it real?” — which indicates that these spaces haven’t previously been opened up.
There is a significant amount of secrecy surrounding menstruation in the Eastern Cape and this expresses itself as a drive to conceal menstruation. Our data also shows that the consequences of being “found out” include not only humiliation and shame, but a very real danger of sexual violation as well. It’s key. The people who form the Siyahluma group bring a lot of different skills and resources to the table — from research and theatre skills to community links and curriculum development. The ability to rely on the members of your team is so central to getting things done and moving forward.
In 2014, a new stakeholder from the community approached the research team. A group of five foster mothers from Grahamstown Child Welfare Services had come together with the idea of starting a social enterprise to produce reusable sanitary products. Our research team decided to partner with this initiative as we’d found that it’s really hard for schoolgoing girls to access modern, reliable, hygienic products affordably. The project is moving forward. Papers and policy briefs are being written and master’s and honours students are using and furthering research that’s already been done. We’ve also partnered with clinics in rural Glenmore and Ndwayana. A partnership has been formed with Days gor Girls International in the United States, which ensures sustainability in the long term. — theconversation.com