Parents have been urged to break their silence over menstruation and reproductive health so that their daughters are informed and prepared before they start their menstrual cycle.
During a menstruation hygiene campaign held in Kayonza District last week which brought together students from different schools, head teachers, community leaders among others, the community was urged to break the taboos around menstruation and tackle the stigma associated with them.
Miss Rwanda, Liliane Iradukunda, called on the young girls to understand that their reproductive health has the power to determine their future and should be careful on their sexual behaviour to avoid compromising their education and future welfare.
"Many girls are led to think that menstruation is embarrassing, that they should try to keep it hidden and never talk about it. For this, it’s no wonder that so many women are in the dark about what’s actually going on in their bodies,” Iradukunda said.
John Uwayezu, the Managing Director of Sustainable Health Enterprise (SHE), which advocates for access to affordable menstruation pads for rural women and girls, said public dialogue about menstruation period will go a long way in improving awareness of reproductive health and deal with the stigma often associated with them, the effects of misinformation around it like unwanted pregnancies will also reduce.
"There is a big number of people in the countryside who still use old clothes as pads during their menstruation period. Therefore, it is important to increase young people’s knowledge about menstrual hygiene and follow some basic rules during their particular time,” Uwayezu said.
According to World Bank statistics, at least 20 percent of schoolgirls in the country, particularly in rural areas, miss school, up to 50 days per year, because they cannot afford buying sanitary pads or due to menstruation related issues.
Effects of poor menstruation hygiene
John Muganda, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Polyclinique La Medicale, said exact health consequences of poor menstrual hygiene are difficult to figure out but normally blood is always associated with high risk infections.
"It is important to practice good hygiene by using clean sanitary pads and change them often and clean the genital area regularly with water but without soap after changing your pads,” he said.
He added that some people may think that while the menstruation period is the best time to have unprotect sex because one cannot get pregnant but they have to be aware that when a girl is on her period, sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis (that are carried in the blood) are spread easily through contact with infected blood.
Also, when a girl is menstruating, she has a higher risk of developing Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) from Gonorrhea or Chlamydia infections.
"Icyumbacy’umukobwa’ programme
‘Icyumbacy’umukobwa’ program which can be loosely translated as ‘Girls room’ is an initiative of SHE in partnership with the Ministry of Education (Mineduc) through which girls are encouraged to talk about their periods with each other and with their families at home.
This initiative is meant to offer a safe haven for any girl who has unexpectedly gone into her period or any female with menstruation period related issues.
The room is equipped with sanitary pads, towels, pain killers, a bed, water, soap etc. and for the girls who cannot afford to buy sanitary pads, the respective school provides them for the duration of the period; free of charge.
Sylvie Uwimbabazi, the Director of Cross Cutting Program in Mineduc said that to date, the initiative is credited for reducing the number of girls who drop out of school because of menstruation.
"In the past, some girls would fail to go to school because they didn’t know how to handle themselves during this period, but this initiative doesn’t only serve an immediate solution, they are also advised on the overall reproductive changes to avoid problems like unwanted pregnancies and STDs,” she said.
editorial@newtimes.co.rw