As the World countdown to the 2015 Mensral Hygiene Day (May 28).
Menstrual Hygiene Day serves as a neutral platform to bring together individuals, organisations, social businesses and the media to create a united and strong voice for women and girls around the world, helping to break the silence around menstrual hygiene management.
Menstrual Hygiene Day help to
address the challenges and hardships
many women and girls face during
their menstruation, but also to
highlight the positive and innovative
solutions being taken to address these
challenges.
The day catalyses a growing, global
movement that recognizes and
supports girl’s and women’s rights
and build partnerships among those
partners on national and local level.
It is an opportunity to engage in
policy dialogue and actively advocate
for the integration of menstrual
hygiene management (MHM) into
global, national and local policies,
programmes and projects
As the world Countdown to the day, Charlotte Akello depicts the travail of girls in this poem.
Imagine:
Imagine attending a school without any toilets or drinking water.
Imagine attending a school with a single latrine for all the students.
Imagine that the latrine is smelly,
with no toilet paper and the door no longer closes.
Imagine attending one of these
schools while you are sick from the flu or malaria or have diarrhea.
Imagine trying to attend classes in these schools while you have your menstrual period.
Imagine your menstrual period is
extremely painful.
Imagine your reuse-able pad is soaked through but there is no running water to clean it, or that there is no trash bin for disposing your used pad.
Imagine having your pad soaked through to your pants so you have to hide the stain with your book bag.
And don’t forget this happens every month.
#periodtalk #menstruationmatter #MHD
By
Charlotte Akello
Makerere University, Uganda.
