GLOBAL – Today marks Menstrual Health (MH) Day – a campaign to draw attention to the continued difficulties people face in accessing safe menstrual health products, including taxation and pricing, but also availability in low resource settings.
The menstrual cycle accompanies girls and women from the beginning of puberty until menopause and is an important indicator of sexual and reproductive health. However, menstruation is more than a biological phenomenon, women and girls across the world continue to experience discrimination linked to their periods. A lack of comprehensive menstrual health education triggers the spread of misinformation and stigmatisation. In addition, many women face further struggles to afford expensive menstrual health products, which also often lack specific regulations and testing.
Celebrated since 2014, the international day strives to normalise menstruation and remove stigma and shame associated with menstruating – and has done so with considerable success. In recent years, periods have become less of a taboo and hashtags like #periodpoverty have been trending on social media, underscoring the persisting financial barriers to accessing menstrual health supplies. Contrary to common belief, these are not only native in low-resource countries, but are wide-spread in Europe: in the UK one in seven girls struggles to afford MH products and one in three has missed school because of it. In reaction, Scotland has taken the lead in progressive menstrual health policy by supplying school and university students with needed products. Globally, donors, governmental and non-governmental development organisations have also recognised the detrimental effects of period stigma on gender equality.
Along these lines, parliamentarians spoke up today highlighting the need to the impact of these challenges on women in poor and humanitarian settings.
Hon. Marie-Rose Nguini Effa, MP (Cameroon) wrote an article to mark the day, stating,
“The menstrual hygiene problem weakens the health of young girls because most of the time they cannot afford sanitary products. A pack of sanitary towels costs 600 Francs CFA in Cameroon and for families this represents the daily ration of an entire family which makes the budget of sanitary items a non-priority purchase. Young girls use scraps of worn fabric from old sheets to protect themselves."
Hon. Esther Passaris, MP (Kenya) commemorated 28 May with a distribution of sanitary towels at Kibera Primary School in Nairobi.
"Menstrual Hygiene is closely linked to the rights to healthcare, education, water, sanitation and hygiene. It ties into several SDGs physical health and psycho-social well-being, quality education, gender empowerment and equality. Leaders in every layer of decision making must ensure that all women and girls in Kenya are able to manage their menstruation hygienically, with dignity and without stigma. Making quality menstrual products & educational information on MHM accessible is our collective duty." - Hon. Esther Passaris, MP (Kenya)
Hon. Petra Bayr, MP (Austria) and SPÖ spokeswoman for global development raised her voice and reaffirmed commitment on the issue.
“Monthly hygiene is particularly challenging in humanitarian settings. Refugee camps often have few toilets and limited access to running water. International aid organisations such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) provide assistance to enable girls and women to manage their menstrual period, safely and with dignity” notes Bayr and calls on the Austrian government to recognise the special needs of women and girls in refugee camps when allocating foreign disaster relief funds.
On this occasion EPF has collected resources and prepared a social media toolkit to help parliamentarians increase public awareness about the relevance of menstrual health for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and encourage them to join the conversation about Menstrual Health this week (May 25-29).
Hashtags: #MPs4MenstrualHealth #MHDAY2020 #ItsTimeForAction #PeriodsInPandemics #MenstrualHealthMatters #MenstrualMay