Pads and Books

It's Menstrual Hygiene week and a vibrant team of 6 from Dwona Initiative, our partner, are excited to engage with the children from Nwoya District. This time it is different. The team from Dwona Initiative through their Reusable Menstrual Pads (RUMPs) for Rural Girls Program are piloting their play-based educational model. This model focuses on teaching topics that are considered taboos in rural communities using play. In this case, it is menstruation.

Menstruation is a natural and biological process that occurs in every woman in their reproductive ages and about 1.8 billion people menstruate globally. However, due to period poverty and stigma especially in rural settings, many girls and women perceive it as a limitation and burden. Nwoya District is one of the many communities that is affected by period poverty and stigma. Our implementing partner, Dwona Initiative were able to map out the communities and schools which had a high school-girl class absenteeism rate because of menstruation. 4 communities and schools were selected namely; Coorom P7 Primary School in Koch Goma Sub-county, Koch lii Primary School in Koch lii Sub-county, Nwoya P7 Primary School in Lungulu Sub-County and Purongo Hill P7 Primary School in Purongo Town Council.

At exactly 8am, the team was at their first school which was Coorom P7 Primary School in the community of Koch Goma. We received a warm welcome to the school from the Head teacher, Ms. Jannie Grace Okulu, the deputy head teacher and the senior woman teacher. At that moment, we could see the curious little ones peeping through their classroom windows to see if their long awaited visitors had arrived yet. As soon as they confirmed it was us, their beautiful faces quickly lit up with huge smiles. They excitedly dashed out of their class, carrying desks and some seats under a big tree shed where we were to have the program from. All the pupils from Primary 4 to Primary 7 class converged together. With the help from Save the Children’s program to engage child-mothers and school drop-out children,  20 child-mothers and 3 male school drop-out males joined us. 

We kicked off the program with introductions from the school leadership team, school management committee and the Dwona team. We then asked the children to form small groups where they could work as a team during the play sessions. In our first play session, visual aids, puzzles, manilla cards and a writing marker were given to each team. The first play they were to engage in was about the terms around the menstruation and the cycle.  One could easily see the children’s excitement as they put together the puzzle pieces around the menstrual cycle and the female reproductive system. In this session, the children wrote down each menstrual term in acholi. Writing these words in their native language was aimed at enabling an easy and more familiar understanding of the concept. After the introductory play session, we took a deep dive into the menstrual cycle phases. We did this through a game called “Race, Period,” where children construct a menstrual bracelet with coloured balloons in teams. All the pupils picked a team they supported and cheered on and you could hear some say; “I want to join” as the game went on. After the game, we went into the last play session which consisted of a game called, “Bloody Bingo.” The pupils could not believe learning about menstruation would be this fun because of the stigma around the topic of menstruation. 

We then went into the pads making session. In this session, we taught all the pupils how to make reusable sanitary pads and in each team, the boys took the lead. We emphasised this to ensure that boys become supporters and allies to their fellow girl pupils around issues of menstruation so that it is not an issue that causes them to miss school. 

As we approached the end of the program, we conducted a read aloud session with the pupils as we read the book titles of Amani, the boda boda rider and Sharon’s song which teach young girls a “I can do spirit” and that their dreams are valid. All menstruating girls and the child-mothers received a fempack and a storybook to keep them in school for a period of 3 years without a worry of missing school because of the inability to afford period products. In total, 335 rural girls and child-mothers received period products and 602 value-based story books from 4 communities in Nwoya district. Together with the Dwona team, we would like to express our gratitude towards your continued generosity towards this project as we continue to support young rural girls complete school.

Boosting a girl’s education is necessary for our country, Uganda to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5. However, the stigma around menstruation and the inability to afford period products and proper menstrual hygiene information has hindered progress. This became one of the biggest factors affecting the girls’ optimal performance at school.

In a study conducted by SNV in 140 schools located in 7 districts in Uganda, 77% of the girls indicated that they miss 2 – 3 school days per month on average. Most of these girls were of the upper primary section which is very critical in completing that particular education level.

With over 50% of girls missing school because of menstruation in Nwoya District, Northern Uganda, we have gone ahead to support them under this project. We have been able to work with the Local leadership to select the 4 communities that we would be working with namely; Purungo, Koch lii, Koch Goma and Lungulu to provide menstrual products and value-based educational children’s books. We believe that with this; girls’ dreams and hopes to stay in school will be restored and also ignite a spark for the love of books.

We are very grateful to all the donors who have given to this project and very grateful for your continued support. We kindly ask that you share this opportunity to friends, family and colleagues so that they can be part of this project by; buying a rural girl menstrual materials for 3 years and a story book of her own that she can read at home and with friends through a donation of $10 or more in the effort to keep her in school.