Of month end salaries and menses!

So it is the end of Women's Month and what better way to marks its passing than with my monthly menses.

What? Are you shocked? Horrified? Disgusted? Bored? Going to click off now.

I am not surprised, it is generally not something we talk about here in the heartlands of Africa. Actually, it is not really talked about much of anywhere. Yet, logically, it is the reason we are all here. Without menses, there would be no births, no you and me. Mmmm. Don't we need to keep working on this taboo?


Here are some interesting facts:

Studies in Zimbabwe have shown that as many as six girls in ten miss school every month due to their menses! We hear similar stories across the region.

There are many ways to make this much better for girls at school across southern Africa, and it needn't cost the world!

Last year, SNV Zimbabwe asked SAfAIDS to help them launch their Break the Silence Menstrual Hygiene Day Campaign in May. From there, a partnership formed to help pull together the work they have been doing in the programmes in keeping girls in school.

This month we are finalising a Toolkit to help schools and communities better integrate menstrual hygiene management (MHM) for women and girls. The starting point is Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) but the end point is everyone in the community understanding
            that menstruation is natural and a sign of good health. Check this out!

It is a very exciting package to have helped develop, well done SNV. The partnership took a collaborative approach, building on existing operational research that had produced some discussion cards,  a ReUsable Menstrual Pad (RUMP) making booklet and a general info flyer in draft form.

We took our own expertise, conducted pre-testing at two primary and two secondary schools with school children, teachers, SDC member as well as community gatekeepers and mothers club members and expanded the kit to include the following:

It is a really beautiful kit, and SAfAIDS Design Team really pulled out all the stops!

We really are looking forward to seeing this printed and in use across Zimbabwe and wish SNV and their programme partners all the best in rolling it out.

Would you like to build on this work and begin to develop products around MHM that can break the silence and change the lifes of women, girls, families and communities? Get in touch. In this pack there are tools for young and old, and critically strategies to engage men. On this issue, they are a real game changer! 

So, it is month end and maybe you get a pay check and maybe you don't. But for women, every month they get their menses, and thank goodness they do. Support them.

Break the silence.