The HAHA Beat: SHE's Instigating at work: EALA pushes for affordable pads

Our instigating efforts are paying forward! Thanks to long-time SHE advocate Dr. Odette Nyiramilimo, whom we met with earlier this year (check out our blog post), the East African Legislative Assembly is pushing for cheaper sanitary pads with a resolution to waive value-added taxes (18% in Rwanda) across East Africa!

Check out the article here: http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?i=15458&a=69783

Re-visit our blog post about meeting with Dr. Nyiramilimo here: http://sheinnovates.blogspot.com/2013/03/an-end-to-value-added-taxes-is-in-sight.html

SHE will be at the Women Deliver Conference, May 28th - May 30th

SHE will participate in several events during the conference: 

Tuesday, May 28th, 12:00 pm - 12:25 pm, Exhibit Hall 2, Hospitality Suite 2: 

View our SHE28 Campaign Video at Cinema Corner

Wednesday, May 29th, 11:15 am – 11:30 am, Speaker's Corner, Exhibit Hall

Learn more about our advocacy and education initiatives during our industrial-scale pilot from Jackie Mupenzi, SHE's Advocacy and Policy Manager

Thursday, May 30th, 11:00 am - 11:45 am, Exhibit Hall 5
Witness social enterprise in action as SHE's Jackie Mupenzi serves as a judge at the Social Enterprise Challenge

If you can't join SHE at the conference, you can attend Women Deliver 2013 virtually through its website at http://new.livestream.com/WomenDeliver/conference2013 or follow the action via its blog or Twitter using hashtag #wd2013.

The HAHA Beat: Menstrual Talk Hits the Rwandan Airwaves

Hi all,

This is Jackie, SHE Rwanda's Advocacy and Policy Manager, and I am excited to share an update from the HAHA (Health and Hygiene Advocacy) Team. We had our first live radio talk show on May 13th that was co-sponsored by our partners, VSO, to raise awareness on menstrual health issues in Rwanda.

I was joined by my colleague Nadia, SHE's Health and Hygiene Officer, Mukasine Caroline, a member of the Maternal and Child Health Department of the Ministry of Health and Uwimbabazi Sylvie, from the Ministry of Education. 

At the beginning of the talk show, every participant was given time to express what they are doing in terms of supporting girls in to manage this issue; I explained how SHE works in partnership with other partner organizations and government agencies to raise awareness, provide training, and work with schools in order to break the silence around menstruation and menstrual hygiene and also to share best practices of menstrual hygiene management (MHM). SHE also talked about its advocacy in terms of tax exemption so as to have affordable and access to sanitary products.

-    The Ministry of Health talked about how they raise awareness of MHM within its reproductive health sensitization programs, while the Ministry of Education confirmed its support of MHM by promoting the addition of girls’ rooms at schools and its basic requirements at all primary and secondary schools. They also talked about its financial support of MHM through its allocation of sanitation funds to schools.

We changed topics during the talk show to discuss how we menstrual health and hygiene awareness:

• Is menstruation really a challenge in schools?
• What is the response from the Ministry of Health to it?
• What are some of the inputs form the Ministry of Education to address the challenge?
• An overview of menstruation and its current management at the school setting
• Answering the audience's questions around menstruation

Below are some of the questions asked and this clearly shows the menstrual hygiene education is critical and needs to be widespread since taboos and incorrect beliefs around the topic is still an issue: 

• Most parents still consider menstruation as a sickness and often keep their daughters at home. Several of them called and asked whether their daughter is sick or if this something normal. 
• What are those days that one would consider to be safe days in one's menstrual cycle?
• When is it likely for a girl to become pregnant? Is it really safe that if you have sex with a girl during her period, that she will never become pregnant?
• Why is it that some girls experience serious pain during their menstruation while others do not?
•  What are some medicines or ways of reducing the pain during periods?
• Are there some other products that one can use apart from pads during menstruation since pads are expensive?
• Why is it that some women have their period/menstruation but at time do not give birth or never become pregnant?

•       Another person called Maniracyiza, called just to say thanks for the discussion.

-   Based on questions asked from the audience, from the community and some more that were not answered due to time constraints, we would like to raise our voices as a call for action to all other organizations in support of girls' issues to join SHE's efforts in one or all three ways: (1) to raise awareness around MHM; (2) to lobby for policy change in schools as a way of raising MHM knowledge; and (3) to ask policy makers to waive taxes on pads so as to have them accessible and affordable.

Our next steps are to follow up with Radio Rwanda because they agreed to offer us more radio airtime and to host a show about menstrual hygiene again since there were so many questions still unanswered from the public. Exciting!

Thank you,

Jackie 

SHE's Advocacy and Policy Manager

The HAHA Beat: Why Menstrual Hygiene Education Needs to be Girl-Friendly

Check out why Health and Hygiene Officer Nadia thinks that menstrual education is not "girl-friendly" enough and how SHE is instigating for these changes at the school level:

"With the support of VSO Rwanda, SHE conducted menstrual health and hygiene awareness programs across the Ngoma District within the month of March.

In our Rwandan culture, as in other parts of the world, menstruation is still viewed as a taboo, making it difficult for parents, teachers and children comfortable to tackle the matter in details. Some parents would say nothing at all about menstruation or at the very least, would ask someone else to explain menstruation to their daughters, which has resulted in misinformation about menstruation.

Health and Hygiene Officer Nadia at one of our 8 awareness sessions in the Ngoma District. 

With all this confusion about how to properly manage their period, girls miss up to 3-5 school days each month, while their male colleagues proceed with their studies, thus making our young sisters, future mothers and leaders of Rwanda at risk of falling behind at school, having low marks, and not having the same achievements as their brothers.

Students therefore have to rely on teachers for menstrual hygiene education, but all they learn is about the biological changes that occur with the onset of menstruation. Unfortunately, menstrual hygiene management part is not covered within it. Girls, as well as boys, need to have that information, so they are prepared once menses does begin and to take it easy; and most importantly, to know that menstruation is NOT a disease or is something shameful! This was our overview when we lead these awareness workshops.

The fact is increased access to menstrual hygiene education is needed and it needs to be presented in a child and girl-friendly manner. If it’s not done in a girl-friendly approach, girls will continue to receive incorrect menstrual information. Some of the myths or incorrect information that I heard from the girls include:

"If you sleep with a man while menstruating, you will never have painful periods”

or

"If you have sex while menstruating, you will never get pregnant"

These girls’ voices are calling out for SHE support. They have the right to know that menstruation is not a disease or a curse as some people believe - it is a normal physiological process the body undergoes.That is why SHE is instigating for increased access to menstrual education and materials at the national level!

SHE is taking the lead to educate girls about MHM through their teachers and parents. Will you join us? Girls are demanding to 'know more!'

I extend gratitude to the Ngoma District and their schools; as a result we were able to provide our MHM awareness workshop to over 1100 students.

I am also most grateful to the girls and their teachers for talking frankly about menstruation in the school setting with us. Girls, we love you, and we believe you deserve to manage your menses healthy and hygienically."

Cheers,

Nadia Hitimana 

Health and Hygiene Officer"

SHE Rockstar of the Month: Health and Hygiene Officer Nadia Hitimana

Nadia (standing at right), SHE's Health and Hygiene officer at a recent training session. 
Photo Credit: Perttu Saralampi

Editor's Note: SHE's Rockstar of the month is also a new addition to the SHE team: our Health and Hygiene Officer Nadia Hitimana. Nadia is also one-half of our HAHA team (Health and Hygiene Advocacy) with our Advocacy and Policy Manager Jackie Mupenzi.

Nadia jumped in feet-first when she joined SHE by leading health and hygiene trainings across eight schools in Kigali. What's up next for Nadia? Leading health and hygiene trainings for the 50+ teachers that are part of our industrial-scale pilot!

Where are you from? 

I am a Rwandese but I was born in Burundi and I have been living in Kigali, Rwanda since August 1994. 

How are you involved with SHE? 

I work as the Health and Hygiene Officer. I am a newcomer, since I just started working here over a month ago, 11th March 2013. 

Why were you compelled to join SHE? 

Prior to joining SHE, I was working at ARC (American Refugee Committee) as a Health Education Coordinator. While working there a colleague and a friend of mine gave me good word about SHE that was working innovatively for better sanitary protection. The key factor that drew me to this team was my desire to participate in the sustainable solutions of addressing menstrual challenges among other health challenges that my young Rwandan sisters are facing in schools – which could hinder their future in one way or another. 

How did you end up working on a field of health education? 

I have been interested in health since I was young. In addition to this, I studied at the Kigali Health Institute, where I specialized in Environmental Health Sciences/Community Health Development and obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health. 

What have you learned since joining SHE? 

I have been warmly surprised by how my new team members bring up many ideas together and work tirelessly to achieve common goal of sustainable solutions towards addressing menstrual challenges. Since joining SHE, my team spirit has increased a lot! 

How do you like to relax on your spare time? 

I love to read and spend time with my friends. I especially like novels about people who brought change to the world. My favorite book of all time is The Bible. I also enjoy cooking, swimming and taking care of people in general, but particularly children. 

If you could pick one theme song for your life, what would it be? 

Une lettre d’amour by Aime Uwimana. He is a Rwandan gospel singer and I really love his songs among other gospel musicians. 

The HAHA Beat: Ensuring Girls' Rights in Education

A HAHA (Health and Hygiene Advocacy) Update from Advocacy and Policy Manager Jackie Mupenzi:

SHE was invited to attend the annual kick-off meeting of the Girls' Education Working Group. The meeting was hosted by the Wellspring Foundation in Nyarutarama-Kigali.

We had a chance to interact with all of the stakeholders that are invested in improving girl's education. Members include Plan Rwanda (Co-chair), Girl Hub (Co-chair), Rwanda Girls Initiative in Gashora, FAWE, Care International, National Union of Disabilities, VVOB, ActionAID, EDC, Imbuto Foundation, UNICEF and CHF.

We can't wait to collaborate and stay tuned to see what happens!