Empower Her.
Period poverty is a term used to describe a lack of access to proper menstrual products and the education needed to use them efficiently. You would be surprised that there are over 500 million women and girls in the world who cannot manage their periods safely due to a lack of menstrual products and for fear of shame. After the fight to give girls and women the opportunity to get access to education, we rested thinking all was well but the battle had just begun. Soon we’d be fighting another battle, period poverty.
Menstruation in some parts of Uganda is considered a taboo. Many girls and women are shamed for something that is a normal body function. Many opt to stay hidden until their menstruation ends to avoid shame and discrimination. According to the Ministry of Education Performance Monitoring and Accountability report in 2020, one in every four girls between the age of 12 and 18 years in Uganda will drop out of school once they begin menstruating and school absence rates tripled from 7% to 28% that year.
The menstruation period is the most vulnerable point in a girl’s month. During that month she loses about 20 to 90 ml of blood although some women lose more than this. During this time she needs to eat well and have access to clean water and sanitary products to prevent complications like pelvic inflammatory disease or toxic shock syndrome and yet in rural areas of Uganda such as Kasese, women and girls experience inadequate access to accurate menstrual health information, water for health and hygiene.
The United Nations has designated the year 2024’s theme for International Women’s Day as ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.’ International Women’s Day is not just a day to celebrate the achievements of women; it’s also a call to action for gender equality, hereby encouraging reflection, advocacy, and action to continue breaking down barriers for women and girls around the globe. As Probono Uganda we would like to answer this call to action to support our women and girls in Uganda through our sector Probono Femmes.
This month we would like to recognize one of our members, Christine Namuddu. Christine Namuddu visited a teenage pregnancy center in Uganda and found out that many Ugandan girls between the ages of 12 and 18 dropped out of school once they began menstruating. This inspired a project titled Empower Her.
The project aimed to reduce period poverty through youth skilling and financial empowerment. The goal was to teach young girls how to make reusable pads in hopes that they could sell them and become financially independent while also having sanitary towels that were affordable and long-lasting. It was noticed that many of the girls who did not have money for sanitary products opted to offer sex to men in exchange for sanitary pads every month and this increased the number of teenage pregnancies in some parts of Uganda. Through the project, Empower Her, a difference was made.
“In all honesty, I did not have knowledge about period poverty and the problems these women face because of it. This experience taught me the value of gaining a skill as a means to financial independence and the impact emancipation has on the lives of young girls facing teenage pregnancy, forced sex work, or child labor.” — Christine Namuddu.
Christine managed to raise 1.2 million Uganda Shillings to provide training to 50 girls located at Old Kampala Zone 1 slum. She did this by conducting bake sales, ice cream sales, and donations from friends and family. With the help of Pro Bono Femmes and Smart Girls Uganda, the girls learned to make reusable sanitary pads and they were sensitized about their menstrual health and birth control. The girls were also able to receive a donation of 100 reusable pads.
Imagine how many lives we can change when we decide to break cultural barriers against effective and efficient period management. We will be able to raise the confidence of all the girls that have been shamed because of something that is normal and natural and maybe that will inspire them to also step up and fight for other girls that are currently in the same position.
Oprah Winfrey said, “The worst thing that we can do as women is not stand up for each other, and this is something we can practice every day, no matter where we are and what we may believe, it is both possible and, more importantly, it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort.” I hope that in 2024, we stand up for women and invest in our women.
