Zimbabwe: Junior Councillor advocates for good menstrual health


Date: October 5, 2020
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The Menstrual Health awareness campaign’s end result is to help break the silence and build awareness about the important role that good menstrual hygiene as well as being the pride of the mensuration period plays in enabling young girls to reach their full potential. Murewa Rural District Council through the Junior Council is working to ensure that women and girls are not limited by something as natural as their periods. The awareness campaign also targets the young boys in and out of school as well as the men or fathers to know how important these girls need support from them.

The majority of girls in schools and even out of school lack adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene, particularly in public places and schools. this can bring about major obstacles to the girls. Lack of separate bathrooms or toilets with lockable doors or unavailability of means to dispose of used sanitary pads and water to wash hands means the young girls face a challenge in maintaining their menstrual hygiene in a dignified manner. the girls also face the challenge with the boys who make fun of them during their period and a lot of superstitions that come along with mensuration. This makes the girls uncomfortable and they end up hiding behind closed doors during their period. Most young girls who have started mensuration lack knowledge on how to handle the whole process, they do not know how to use the pad, where to get them and how to dispose of them. That lack of knowledge makes them feel very uncomfortable leading them to feel ashamed and shy to ask anyone. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness to everyone on the importance of menstrual health.

Activities

1.Junior Council holds quarterly meetings to discuss and map forward on issues related to addressing menstrual health among other SRHR issues. Their recommendations are forwarded to the mainstream council for possible inclusion in the Council’s financial plan.
2. Junior Council hold awareness campaigns in schools on Menstrual health.
3. Awareness campaigns are also done on public gatherings e.g. clean up campaigns
4. Distribution of sanitary pads in schools.
5. Provision for material for the production of reusable pads for girls from schools in the rural area.
6. Formulation of the SRHR Workplan and adoption by Council.

Results and Outcomes

The awareness campaign has managed to change the lives of the junior councillors through confidence building. This has built their confidence that they are now able to share and educate other young people.
Our campaigns as the Junior council have also changed the lives of various individuals since they now have knowledge of menstrual health.

This programme will go a long way in changing the lives of the young girls since schools have adopted it and it is on council’s SRHR plans.


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