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

Sky's Summer in Rwanda

After living in four different countries, attending six schools and being exposed to dozens of cultures, I honestly thought I had heard it all. That is why I still find it so very hard to believe that I could stumble upon an issue so pressing as women’s lack of access to menstrual products. Even more to my astonishment, a single article has lead to (amongst many other things) an unforgettable, life-changing time in Rwanda working with SHE. 

            I lived for a month this summer in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Although I had organized, scheduled and prepared for months, embarking on my trip did feel like stepping into the unknown. I was so keen but as the days grew nearer my nerves did kick in. Many would presume that I was scared from the thought of being alone in a new country, but instead I was preoccupied with whether anyone would take a 16-year-old blond, peppy girl seriously. Much to my content, I have never been treated with more respect or maturity, then when I worked along side the amazing people I met in Rwanda. 

On the road from capital city Kigali to the rural area in Kayonza

I spent most days in Kigali, but I had the opportunity to travel the countryside on multiple occasions. Officially, I completed a checklist of items for SHE, including shooting and editing films. I still managed to spend most of my time hidden behind my camera lens, trying to capture as many things as possible (more to come!). When I did venture away from it, I met incredible people who told me heart-breaking, courageous or inspiring stories. Travelling with the SHE team, we ran focus groups where I had the luck of listening to girls tell me about their experiences with their periods. Most of the time, they were my age, which truly allowed me to bond with them. Although we live thousands of miles apart, I found we had as much in common as we did different. 

Just some of the natural beauty that can be found all over in Rwanda

 I recorded my experiences through videos, photos, and journal entries. Right now I am collecting and organizing everything to share with you…so stay tuned! 

School's in Session at SHE

 The holidays are over! Students are back in school, which is great news for me! As Junior Marketing Officer, Rwanda, I am responsible for conducting market research so the SHE team can develop a marketing and communications plan that speaks to our target consumers during our pilot: rural school girls. Therefore, I was delighted to see students with their bookbags, because I was headed to the same place! I went to Kayonza recently to interview school headmasters.

We first visited with the headmasters in order to introduce SHE as a potential partner and supplier of our SHE pads to them. I was there not only to gain a broad understanding about the school and girls’ existing needs for menstrual pads and menstrual hygiene education, but also to arrange focus group discussions with the girls that will take place later on this month. During my visits, I also had the opportunity to take a look at the school’s existing sanitation facilities including the latrines, girls’ rooms, water tanks,etc.

The girls' room at Gs Gishanda, where girls can access pads while at school.

Entrance to the girls' latrine at Gs Gishanda.

My most memorable moments of my school visits were talking directly to the girls about how they manage their menstrual hygiene needs while at school. “Our school has a home-like atmosphere, so you can approach your friend and provide a pad , and tell her how to put it on when she doesn’t know how to, or even check on her during break when she is not feeling well,”  explained Esperance, the Head Girl at Gs Cyinzovu.

Head Girl, Esperance, at GS Cyinzovu

 

The school administration also acknowledges that lack of menstrual pads does result in absenteeism for some girls. “Pads have an impact on girls’ attendance, therefore, we will set apart a certain amount [of the school budget] for sanitary pads for girls even if the government stops providing funding for pads, because we know girls needs them to pursue their studies,” shared Juliet, the school secretary at Gs Gishanda.

In the future, we are expecting to meet mothers to get their opinions, the cultural context of menstruation, as well as surrounding taboos. I look forward to meet them, and I hope we will learn a lot from them.

- Gerardine, Junior Marketing Officer, Rwanda

Welcome to Monica Gagnon, SHE's Global Public Health Intern

Advocacy is key to our work since one of our goals is to restore dignity to women and girls through policy changes and community dialogue. We launched our advocacy campaign at a national level in Rwanda with our 2010 "Breaking the Silence" campaign that included a march down the streets of Kigali to gain national attention to the taboos about menstruation.


We are now beginning to scale our advocacy efforts at a global level and are always looking for fellow instigators to join us in developing innovative ways to address the barriers to access to sanitary pads. Monica Gagnon has become a fellow SHE instigator this summer as our SHE's Global Public Health Intern. Learn more about Monica in her own words:

"Hello! I’m a Master’s in Public Health candidate in health policy and management at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health. In my day job I coordinate a residency program in family medicine in East Harlem, with the goal of increasing access to quality primary care in underserved communities. My main interest in public health is overcoming barriers to access to health, which is what drew me to SHE.

As an undergraduate at Oberlin College, I majored in religion with a focus on gender, and traveled to Mali to study gender and development. SHE combines my interests in gender and social justice by finding innovative ways to address barriers to women’s health access. I am very excited to be joining the team and delving into the global policy issues that affect SHE’s work.

When not thinking about public health, I enjoy playing field hockey, doing the Sunday NY Times crossword, watching French movies and dreaming about my future goat farm!"