Girls get menstrual hygiene tips
AS part of activities to mark 2020 World Menstrual Hygiene Day, Home of Rescue Foundation (HRF) has donated sanitary pads and towels to school going girls in Sinazongwe District and emphasised the need for menstrual hygiene.
The gesture is one way of sensitising the girl-child on the need to maintain good and proper menstrual hygiene.
During the commemoration, which falls on May 28, the foundation gave the girls health talk on the average age for a girl to experience her first menstrual cycle, the number of days in the cycle and the signs and symptoms of menstruation.
Additionally, the girls were educated how to handle the pain and other challenges that come with menstruation.
HRF Executive Director, Munkombwe Sinywimanzi, said her organisation was intent on creating awareness on menstrual hygiene in order to deconstruct the myth and misconception about menstruation.
Ms Sinywimanzi stated that poor menstrual hygiene undermined the educational opportunities of girls and women as it could affect their health and social status, thereby preventing them from reaching their full potentials.
She called on policy makers in the country to give priority to menstrual hygiene of school girls at all levels of governance by providing them with sanitary towels.
“Girls are being discriminated against when they are menstruating; they are treated like dirt hence they tend to stay at home during menstruation which affects their education. This is why we taught them on how to take care of themselves during menstruation.
“We want the girls to know that it is safe to menstruate. We want to disabuse the minds of the people on the misconception that when a girl is menstruating, she cannot go to school, she cannot handle some things, and she cannot be in some places or be saddled with some responsibilities,” Ms Sinywimanzi said.
Some of the girls who participated in the sensitization lauded the organizers for providing them with such important opportunity to learn about menstruation that was so personal to them.
The provision of adequate and safe sanitation could promote equity and opportunity, which, in turn, contributed to the erosion of long- standing discrimination.