Its Time to End Period Poverty and Stigma on Girls.

Access to menstrual pad is not only fundamental to good health but also to dignity, education and other economic opportunities. But more often than not, girls of school going age in deprive communities cannot afford menstrual pad a situation, that forces them to socially isolate themselves, and even absent from school or quit due to stigma and embarrassment. Newly menstruating girls have little or no knowledge about menstruation more so, how to properly manage menstruation in a hygienic way.

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Managing hygiene for newly menstruating girls is quite hectic in communities where there’s prevalence of stigma, inadequate guidance and cultural taboos. This goes a long way to affect their academic performance because such stigma leads to poor academic performance of girls competing in patriarchal society which eventually, leads to increase in absenteeism and depression during their period. Problems such as; limited education on menstrual health, social stigma, lack of guidance and counselling and inadequate menstrual kit are all the problems young girls face in their monthly cycle.

Sometimes, most girls are not able to afford sanitary pads and thus chose to stay at home whenever they are menstruating. These are problems that goes against their performance and comes with multiple effects such as child marriage and school drop-outs.

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The subject of menstruation is often treat with contempt especially in Northern Ghana where there is a lot of cultural practices and beliefs that discriminate against girls experiencing their menstruation. In some societies, the topic of menstruations is never discussed openly due the erroneous perception that menstruating women are unclean and such topics breeds moral decadence. However untrue such perceptions are, girls are always treated as unclean especially in communities where this perceptions thrives on religion and cultural practice. Girls always face the problem of stigma and access menstrual kits anytime they go through their monthly cycle.

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Societal stigma and lack of menstrual health education forces girls to hang their undies and rags in humid, dark and unhealthy places instead of hanging them under the sun to kill likely microbial infections. Girls are socially isolated not because of menstrual pains, or any other reasons but the stigma meted out to them by the society.

I believe the government and the society as a whole can end this by building girls capacity through participatory education. This can be done through advocacy in rural communities where opinion leaders, parents and traditional authorities can be engaged effectively to open discussions on menstrual related topics. By training the girls in menstrual hygiene and other related topics, their overall cognitive understanding on menstrual health would be enhanced as the false information and doubts lingering on their mind would be clarified and demystified.

Government can also improve access by removing taxes charged on imported sanitary pads and setting up factories to produce some locally either through state-owned or public private partnership. The State can also distribute pads to young girls for free and this can be done by having pad banks in designated points, schools, public places,communities where a lady can walk in at any time and purchase one at subsidize price of given one for free by presenting a valid ID card. There could even be a policy where each female before 18 years, is entitled to 2pcs of pad per month. I believe this can help reduce period poverty or at least prevent absenteeism in schools.
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