How Financially Empowered Women Can Help Transform Girls’ Menstrual Health

 

Today is Menstrual Hygiene Day, a day, dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of good menstrual hygiene management.

 As a teenage girl I went through my first period and subsequent ones uneventfully thanks to having parents, and especially a mother who worked and provided the basics I needed to navigate those days. 

I also went to a boarding high school with decent facilities to help manage that time of the month; clean bathrooms and toilets.

I consider myself truly privileged.

Especially because even now, years later, thousands of girls in Uganda still miss school every month because they lack sanitary pads, pain management, and other feminine hygiene products like menstrual cups.

Research shows that when girls can’t afford pads, they often stay home during menstruation; resulting in absence from school for up to five days each month, which is almost a quarter of their learning time! Over time, they fall behind, lose confidence, or drop out altogether.

In addition, girls sometimes engage in transactional sex to be able to afford hygiene products!

A number of initiatives are in place, helping address this issue head-on, providing information and access to sustainable products for menstrual hygiene management.

 I believe in addition to supporting such initiatives we need to do more to empower more women financially, and through them empower their daughters and daughter’s daughters.

Investing in women has been proven to provide   benefits not just for individual women but for  their   families, communities, and economies.

That’s why it makes sense to also consider financial empowerment for women as one of the approaches to help tackle period poverty.

When women have control over their finances, they can:

·                 *Buy quality menstrual products for themselves and their daughters

*Access pain relief and proper hygiene supplies like soap and water.

*Afford better sanitation; toilets with privacy, bathrooms with clean water and changing facilities

*Teach younger girls and sisters what to expect and how to stay in school

Periods are natural. Managing them safely shouldn’t be a privilege.

By Martha Songa