World Menstrual Hygiene Day: help us to end this taboo!
Taboo, a lack of information, privacy and sanitary facilities, means that 70 percent of the girls in eastern and southern Africa miss one to three school days a month due to menstruation. Women and girls are seen as unclean during their menstruation period and are often excluded from school, family life, work and other social activities.
Even in progressive societies, there is much shame about the monthly menstruation cycle. Women around the world hide their tampons and sanitary pads. Women's periods should be the most normal thing in the world. Therefore, today is Menstrual Hygiene Day. Because only by being open about menstruation we will break the worldwide taboo and go beyond shame.
Join Simavi that will start a series of webinars or on the campaign #Beyondshame.
Pinky Devi (right with camera) made a video on how she broke the taboo in her Indian village and got involved in workshops (see her video below).
Weekly webinar on menstruation issues
On 31 May a series of five weekly webinars will start with different topics every week. The series aim to touch on many of the complex aspects of MH, including evidence, knowledge, menstrual products, infrastructure and policy.
The first webinar is 'Menstrual hygiene: the issue, evidence and gaps' and starts on 31 May at 12.00 UCT.
Participants learn about key opportunities and gaps regarding menstrual hygiene globally, particularly menstrual health as a cross-cutting theme. Furthermore, participants will be inspired to apply evidence informed programming in MH to ensure maximum impact.
Live broadcast from New York
The fifth and last webinar is planned to be a live broadcast from New York where a side event on this issue will take place during the High Level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals at the headquarters of the United Nations.
The broadcasting of the whole series of webinars is a join production by Menstrual Hygiene Alliance, Wash United, WorldVision, Simavi and GIZ.
All webinars are free-of-charge and open to all interested professionals and individuals from all sectors.
Detailed information on the webinar series are at the Simavi website.
Read also on this webinar
● New WASH facilities alone will not solve menstruation issue for school girls in Bangladesh, 18 August 2016
● SNV advocates improved menstrual hygiene management to keep Ugandan girls in school, 20 June 2013
● Expertise: Water for all
More information
MH Alliance
c/o WASH United
Berlin, Germany
www.mh/alliance.org
SNV
The Hague, the Netherlands
0031 70 3440 244
www.snv.org
Simavi
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
+31 88 313 15 00
www.simavi.org
Video by SNV on their school projects in five African countries to involve girl students to become more aware of menstrual hygiene.
Video by Simavi on how Pinky Devi, living in Hasanpur, near New Dehli, India, got involved in giving workshops on using sanitary pads.