Menstrual Hygiene Management in schools of Nepal

Shree Kalidhunga Higher Secondary School lies in Mirge of Dolakha district. It is one of the many schools in the area receiving aid from ECCA, since past few years. Sabina Tamang, aged 15, is a student of class 9 in the school. She also happens to be an active member of the Children’s Nature Club at her school. Her house is situated at 800 meters radius away from the school. Her younger sister, Sabita and she commute to school daily on foot.

According to Sabina, her school lacked any kind of separate toilet for girls, a year ago. This used to cause a lot of uncomfortable situations for girls her age in the school. “I used to skip school during the time of my menstruation. It is difficult to change sanitary napkins, when you have to share a common toilet with the boys” is what Sabina had to say. She shared with us incidences of when boys did not understand the issue and teased the girls and just how uneasy that used to make the girls feel. “There were many other girls who used to skip school during that time of the month, just to escape the embarrassment of having to use a common toilet or get teased by one of the boys,” said Sabina.

Having to skip classes and missing out on academic progress was not for the likes of an A-grade student like Sabina, who is a staunch believer of going home and revising everything that has been taught in the class. “I did not like missing out on my classes but, I had no other choice, at that time,” recalls Sabina.

After receiving help from ECCA, the school now has two girl friendly toilets, for the ‘School Environment Improvement Program' conducted by ECCA in the vicinity.

Girl friendly toilet with incinerator at the back

“I feel very relieved now that we have these female friendly toilets. I don’t have to skip school during my menstruation days anymore,” said Sabina with a smile across her face.

Menstruation should not result in absences and girls missing out on an education due to completely preventable reasons. Just by constructing girl friendly toilets the positive impact of the project could be witnessed. Due to the efforts of ECCA the female absentee rate has declined, since the construction of the girl friendly toilets, according to the schools records.

Toilet is well equipped with water facility, Sabina during her school hours

Sabina shared that many of her friends have also stopped missing school and are very glad with the newly constructed toilets. “I am glad my younger sister will not have to face the difficulty I went through, when she hits her puberty. She will not get teased by the boys, now that things have been made more comfortable for us. I would like to thank your organization for educating and supporting us with this,” Sabina smiled with a sigh of relief.

We are indeed very thankful to all of you who have been supporting us in our intiation of helping female students attend schools through constructing girl friendly toilets. 

ECCA recently provided support to make girl friendly the newly constructed toilet of Shree Udaya Kharka Secondary School, Chapagaon. 178 female students and also six female teachers are now benefitted by this construction. The toilet is now equipped with pipelines for proper water facilities and an incinerator to properly dispose the used sanitary pads.

“It is the first time that we are staying at school comfortably during our menstruation period”, says 12 years old Devika, a grade 8 student. The hesitation to attend school during menstruation period had adverse effect on their studies that directly contributed to dropout rate increment in the school.

According to the teachers, construction of girl friendly toilet has become very effective and regular attendance of students has now increased. “Attending the menstruation awareness programs has made students more careful about menstruation and menstrual hygiene”, shares Ms. Gyanu, one of the teachers. She adds, “now the problem of sanitary pad disposal has been solved since there is incinerator (attached to the toilet) to burn them.”  Previously, girls had only one option; to haphazardly throw the used pads in the toilet and that obviously brought more problems. Admitting to the problematic situation, 13 years old  Srijana, one of the students says, “because of the water facility, the toilet has also become very helpful in maintaining our personal hygiene.”

The support has provided motivation for female students to attend the school regularly. Hundreds of girl students are now motivated to go to school with the construction of girl friendly toilet in schools. We are indeed very thankful for your donations that are helping to make this possible.