World Menstrual Hygiene Day – the importance of education
Around the world, millions of women and girls face exclusion and discrimination when they menstruate – this can prevent them from getting an education, earning an income, and participating fully in everyday life. This World Menstrual Hygiene Day we are reminded just how vital the role of education is in removing the stigma around menstruation.
#PeriodFriendlyWorld A global campaign to remove stigma
A lack of access to menstrual products and good sanitation practices, compounded by ongoing cultural taboos and stigma and the absence of education contributes to poor menstrual hygiene for millions of women and girls. Menstrual Hygiene Day (MH Day) is a global campaign uniting people across the world to promote good menstrual health and hygiene.
In a #PeriodFriendlyWorld, the stigma and taboos surrounding menstruation would be non-existent. It is a world where everyone can access the products, education and infrastructure they need. MH Day has two key aims. Firstly, breaking the taboo around menstrual health and hygiene, to raise awareness and shift negative social norms around menstrual health. Secondly, urging leaders to prioritise and act at global, national, and local levels.
https://www.menstrualhygieneday.org/
Helping through our school projects
Our Schools Programme builds, repairs, and improves schools in remote regions of Nepal, which in turn provides access to education and a better future for Nepali children. As part of our Schools Programme, we construct disabled and gender-separate toilets. Clean and separate toilets are incredibly important to ensure that female students feel comfortable attending school during their menstrual cycle. In addition, GWT also delivers an awareness programme to schools to promote better hygiene among students.
Empowering young girls
Our teams travel to rural schools to provide sanitary pads and educate young girls about menstruation, and the importance of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. By offering these as part of our Schools Programme, we have seen a huge improvement in female student attendance.
Our most recent menstrual health and disaster awareness programme was conducted at Shree Janapriya Secondary School in Myagdi, where we distributed sanitary pads to female students and held discussions about breaking the stigma around menstruation to help girls thrive in school.
As a result of the programme, students left with an understanding of the myths vs facts surrounding menstruation. While conducting a Focus Group Discussion, the students agreed:
“Menstruation is not a communicable disease. Personal Hygiene and Sanitation are the most important things during menstruation. Luckily, we have toilets and water facilities in our school. We don’t have to feel uncomfortable or skip our regular classes. If there is any discrimination from the other students about menstruation, then we must inform our teachers about it.”
Purna Kali BK (student in Class 10):
“We are very happy that The Gurkha Welfare Trust has built our school blocks and latrines. Due to this, firstly there is no environmental pollution. During the period, we can access a toilet which is gender friendly. We can change our pads and maintain our hygiene. We have properly managed the used pads, so it has not affected the environment. We can now study nicely in this school. Thank you all for constructing our school block building and toilet. I am satisfied and happy to study at this school.”
Durga Kadel, School Nurse:
First, I would like to thank Gurkha Welfare Trust for constructing the school blocks. I used to be a student at this school. Now, I am working as a School Nurse. Before the construction of the blocks, we used to study in congested classrooms. Now, there has been proper management of the classrooms for the students. Students can study nicely and effectively. In addition, there has been construction of gender and disabled toilets. I would like to thank you for that. There is also an incinerator within the school premises, so students can manage their used sanitary pads properly. With the awareness programme, I would like to thank GWT for providing knowledge about menstruation and distributing sanitary pads to female students.”
