Time to dispel myths about menstrual hygiene, status

Dar es Salaam. With menstruation marred with misconceptions in the local communities, efforts are being made to provide correct information and educate the young girls.

As the world marked the menstrual hygiene day yesterday, communities and stakeholders had the opportunity to discuss issues that aimed to break the silence in societies to see menstruation as a normal occurrence.

Misconception that equate menstruation to shame, is said to be one of the challenges which caused some girls to lose their confidence and fail to attend classes and other activities.

Kasole Secrets Company, which focuses in the manufacture of pads using bamboo charcoal technology as well as providing education to adolescents on puberty and menstruation, decided to run a safe menstruation campaign in communities and schools, targeting young people, female and male about safe menstruation.

The purpose was to break the silence and misconceptions around menstruation, increase active participation of girls in schools including sports and remedial classes and create a friendly environment between girls, teachers and parents in reducing or eliminating various menstrual barriers.

In its programmes, the company teaches young people how to make domestic reusable menstrual pads as many students, especially in rural areas, are unable to afford buying disposable pads due to high cost.

Ms Rehema Hamis, a Kilimanjaro-based student says she was using pieces of cloth without changing for a full day, on her start of menstruation but later changed the habit.

“I didn’t know if I had to change over time,” she said.

She said after being educated, she started using disposable pads but there were times when she was unable to buy and went back to the peace of Khangas.

“The challenge of fabrics is sometimes bleeding profusely, staining the outer clothes and as a result, everyone knows you are in the menstruation. That period gives me a lot of worries,” she said.

For her part, Asha Mohamed from Morogoro said the issue of menstruation was ‘very challenging’ as society still considered it as a matter of dirtiness while others related menstruation with a ticket to marriage.

“We are very grateful to these stakeholders for continuing to provide education to young people, especially men and boys so that they can see menstruation as a normal thing. Ultimately, they will support girls to study without worries,” she said.

On the other hand, an ex-teacher Suleiman Rashid from Coast Region put blame on societies for entertaining the misconceptions.

He said the misconception was still going on, with a girl in her menstruation perceived as a filthy person who should not even touch the dishes.

He said some people dared even to serve her food on a separate plate.

“During menstruation period, girls feel embarrassed and sometimes they isolate themselves from their peers and begin to stigmatize themselves.

“Many societies believe that a menstruating person, once they touch vegetables, they can dry out, sometimes even men do not eat food cooked by that person,” he said.

Momba Education officer Frank Mosha said there was the need for both parents to monitor the progress of their daughters.

He said in the past years, only the mother was involved in all matters concerning girls, but due to advancement of science and technology, even men were now encouraged to get involved in all matters concerning their daughters; helping to buy sanitary towels for their daughters or providing money for purchasing the items.

Kasole Secrets Company chief executive officer Hyasintha Ntuyeko told The Citizen recently that since 2015, it has been contributing 10 percent of the annual revenue from the sanitary towels to communities under its corporate social responsibility policy.

She said, by 2020, the company had directly benefited a total of 3,733 women, including students, teachers and facilitators from various medical and social development colleges from Kilimanjaro, Morogoro, Coast Region and Dar es Salaam who received training on puberty, biology of menstruation, and nutrition.

She added that the company has introduced a system for girls to buy disposable towels at a reduced price using the QR code system which stores all the information of the girl in a database to ensure these pads are used only by the targeted beneficiary.

These pads are only sold through school shops as school income generating activity and the profits generated are used to solve minor water, sanitation and hygiene challenges in the respective schools.

“Despite the fact that the company sells disposable pads, we understand that not all girls and women can afford the cost of such towels and that’s why they decided to teach girls how to make domestic reusable pads,” she said.

She said they also teach entrepreneurs on how to make commercial reusable pads and sell them in wholesale and retail shops.

They also teach communities on how to sew various shapes of reusable pads.