Lack of menstrual hygiene products affecting girls’ education

Local research has found that the lack of access to menstrual hygiene products can result in girls being absent from school for up to five days each month-that is almost a quarter of their learning time.

Girls from poor families often face considerable barriers in accessing education and many lack the resources to stay in school such as sanitary products, resulting in high rates of early marriage, teen pregnancy and school dropout.

A 2019, a report by UNICEF showed that only 13% of girls complete upper secondary school, and among the poorest children the figures fall to 2% and thereby putting girls from poor families in the most vulnerable position.

Menstrual equity is a key part of the solution.

Without access to period products, health information and supportive policies, many girls are therefore forced to drop out of school – and left vulnerable to child marriages and unwanted pregnancies.

Evidence form Malawi Longitudinal School Survey targeting a nationally representative sample of Standard 4 learners in 500 schools identified a number of factors related to the observed poor performance of girls relative to boys and these included lack of female teachers and females in senior teaching positions and headship.

According to Esme Kadzamira, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Educational Research and Training, University of Malawi Many studies have linked school absenteeism among girls to menstruation.

By extension this absenteeism has been linked to poorer performance among girls.

In an effort to address these challenges, a local organisation under the banner, Women for Social Change embarked on a drive to provide young girls with reusable sanitary pads through its Think Period initiative.

According to Tadala Namakuwa who is the organisations Project Leader indicates that they aim to keep girls in school through their donations.

“Our organization’s main concern is we do not want to see girls missing school because they are having their period. That’s why in our campaign Think Period, we have decided to donate reusable sanitary pads to these school girls,” she says.

Namakuwa goes on to say that, ” the material which we use to make these pads are easily accessible on the local market. If we can train more girls to be making their own sanitary pads, we will change this concept of missing school because one is having their period.”

Through the Think Pink initiative, girls like Diana Damiano have been empowered and she shares her experience:

“Some other girls are failing to go to school because of lack of pads and other are not comfortable to go to school during this period. We happy that they have been given this assistant. Sometimes boys will follow up to find out what’s going on with us and the best way for us is to choose not to go tom school,” she explained.

Overtime there have been suggestions to incorporate boys in an effort to change the status quo whereby it is taboo to talk of issues concerning menstruation.  

Memory Chitanda, founder and chief Executive officer for Glow motivation emphasizes on the need to incorporate the male gender.

“We need to change an approach as a nation and start talking about it freely. What exactly is menstruation? What does it mean when young girls are going through that? The hormonal environment. What changes in the body? And how supportive men have to be because menses affect young girls in different ways.”

“So you find that some can’t even focus on school because usually they have very painful periods. It has to come from the society, it has to come from parents to educate their young boys to say this what menstruation is all about when a woman is going through this, they go through this changes, physical as well as emotional changes so that they can understand. If you just focus on telling teachers to educate these boys, it will not be effective,” Chitanda explained.

Also Commenting on the matter is Barbra Banda who is NGO Gender Coordination Network Chairperson.

“Menstruation is not a choice for a girl child and because of that we have to deal with it with a sober mind because our girls are not doing well, they treading behind boys and some of those things that are coming between them and success are issue of menstrual hygiene. Schools do not provide enough infrastructure, adequate water facilities for girls to comfortably look after themselves.

We need to treat menstrual hygiene as a component of a girl’s life that needs to be addressed like a national issue by ensuring that all menstrual products are getting into this country and there is no duty charged on them,” explained Banda.

But with growing calls for the authorities to look into the issues at hand, what does the Ministry of Education say about the suggestions?

The Ministry’s spokesperson Chikondi Chimala pinpoints that they are in the process of constructing what he calls changing rooms among others in order to address the issue.

Chimala indicates that they share the same concerns being raised.

“It has indeed been a problem when leaner in our schools are undergoing through menstruation cycles. It has led to some leaners dropping out, some missing classes, some getting discouraged or some performing poorly in their lessons.

But we are on a different trajectory right now, the ministry working with various players as well as on its own, has invested a lot in trying to provide adequate support to both the girl child and teachers.

Through various structures found in schools like the mother groups, they are able to provide pads to the girls, and teach them how to sew them.

The Ministry together with partners, we have also invested in construction of change rooms in many schools across the country which are helping greatly by helping our girls to have a place where they can go to change and dispose the pads.” Chimala explains.

“We also made it a policy to deploy female teachers across the country in all schools so that were there is need for the students to consult, they have the female teachers who can provide the guidance without any problem,” he adds.

Keeping in mind that education is an enabler for the realization of the 2063 Agenda, it is therefore important to address challenges emanating from a lack of access to proper menstrual products and sanitation facilities for girls.

In addition, there is also a need to intensify menstrual hygiene education including re-usable sanitary wear.

The Malawi 2063 Agenda which among other targets seeks to make Malawi a middle-income economy can only work if we not only invest more in education but also support from poor backgrounds.

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