Adolescent girls face several challenges relating to menstruation and its proper management. Lack of adequate sanitary products, inadequate water supply, and privacy for changing sanitary pads continue to leave adolescent girls with limited options for safe and proper menstrual hygiene in many low-income settings, including Ethiopia. These situations are also compounded by societal myths, stigmas surrounding menstruation, and discriminatory social norms.
Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is a vital part of the health and dignity of women and girls worldwide. Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) refers to ‘Women and adolescent girls using a clean menstrual management material to absorb or collect blood that can be changed in privacy as often as necessary for the duration of the menstruation period, using soap and water for washing the body as required, and having access to facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials’ .
Several factors affect adolescent MHM experiences, including inadequate WASH facilities and lack of separate toilets with doors that can be safely closed in schools, unavailability of means to dispose of used sanitary pads and water to wash hands, lack of absorbent materials, fear of blood leaking, menstrual pain, and inadequate knowledge towards the menstrual cycle and its management were key challenges that adolescent girls face in maintaining their menstrual hygiene in a private, safe and dignified manner .
In developing countries, like ours the problem of menstrual hygiene gets worse, as adolescent girls can face significant challenges in managing their menstruation, particularly when attending school. Girls’ inability to manage their menstrual hygiene in schools results in school absenteeism, resulting in poor school performance, drop-out, and reduced educational attainment. In some instances, girls were obliged to carry soiled absorbents back home in schools that did not have waste disposal facilities and separate toilet facilities for female students . A growing body of evidence shows that considerable school absenteeism due to menstruation among adolescent girls was a frequent phenomenon in many low and middle-income countries. Besides, lack of clean, safe, functional, private, and gender-specific WASH facilities in school settings and poor access to sanitary materials were also associated with poor MHM among adolescent girls.
As we all know, WEEA has been working on adolescent's and women's menstrual hygiene management, but until the end of this year(2016 E.C), as WEEA's Good will Ambassador I would like to announce that we will be working extensively on menstrual hygiene training for adolescent girls. Women Economic Empowerment Africa Adey Pads አደይ የሚታጠብ ሞዴስ አምራች Hanan Abdi
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