Girls from lower-income backgrounds are missing days of school because they can’t afford sanitary products.
A campaigner with Freedom4Girls, a organisation that provides women and girls in Kenya with sanitary products, told BuzzFeed News they were contacted by a concerned police officer working in a school in Leeds who had noticed a pattern in some girls’ truancy.
“There is a problem, but we just don’t know how big,” campaigner Tina Leslie told BuzzFeed News. She was told by the officer, “I’ve got these girls, and they have no sanitary towels, and they are missing school because they can’t afford them.”
Sophie, a 16-year-old pupil in a central Leeds school, said she’d missed “weeks” of school because she hadn’t been able to afford sanitary products.
“I used to wrap tissue, socks, all sorts around my underwear just to stop the bleeding,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I’d support myself without having to ask.
“Sometimes during my period I wouldn’t go to school for a week at a time.”
Note: I'm glad to see an article on this topic because it still gets too little attention despite the big impact it has on too many girls.
No girl should have to consider sanitary supplies a luxury as though it is any different than toilet paper which is available, for free, most everywhere.
It makes me sad and angry too, that girls are missing school because of normal, predictable and basic body functions.
Why are sanitary supplies any different than tissue or toilet paper or soap which schools provide to all at no cost? Why aren't these products stocked in bathrooms or in the nurse's office as condoms often are?
Why don't all kids get taught about these basic bodily functions so they are normalized and de-stigmatized?
Parents can't always afford these products. That's true. That might be true just once or repeatedly. Sanitary supplies are expensive.
Sometimes parents are so ashamed, traumatized or disconnected from their own body functions and needs that they aren't equipped to educate or provide for kids.
Sometimes, single fathers are not informed about when and how to talk about "girl stuff" and don't learn or get help to prepare daughters.
There are lots of reasons girls are not provided basic body information or supplies.
But reasons aren't remedies.
Periods can start at age 8 and last 2 to 7 days a month. For kids without appropriate supplies, we're talking a lot of days of school that is missed or hard every month. It's a situation that can remain consistently hard for months or years.year.
I started my period at age 11 and was not prepared. Not at home, by my mother who was stressed, overworked and had survived cervical cancer and a total hysterectomy and was no longer menstruating when her daughters became tweens. She didn't arm us with words or education or supplies, for years.
It made life hard. At home and at school.
Some have pediatricians who might help. We didn't. Like many, we moved a lot and my mother worked full-time so we generally went to the emergency room for emergencies, not preventative or educational and routine stuff. This is how life is for a bit, a long time or all time for some.
This impacts girls right now. Today.
So, while I now know as an adult that menstruation is routine, normal and predictable it's not information I knew as a young girl when I began menstruating. It's information girls still lack. That lack of information made me
That lack of information makes menstruating a total hassle and nuisance and also, a reason to skip, ignore or avoid things. It can make for a constant source of physical and emotional stress to menstruate without knowing what's happening or that there are ways to deal with the process or to have the products to do so.
There is no feeling that this is a normal, magical and honored rite of passage if it is scary, messy, annoying and comes with cramps. If girls don't know about or can't afford sanitary supplies there's a good chance they aren't getting pain relievers or hot water bottles either.
Some girls are struggling in school or at home while missing school or at work right now. Some girls are missing sports or clubs today. Some girls are in physical or emotional pain or both while trying to concentrate, study, learn, socialize and do gym.
Surely, this impacts girls and their school experience and performance.
Do we really just leave girls to suffer and figure it out on their own?
For days and months or years? At 9, 12, 15 or 17?
This is a problem that is entirely preventable and can be solved with willingness and money if the needs and body functions of girls were considered normal, routine and worthy of attending to.
*Please share if you know more about this issue or any innovative approaches, products, programs or websites that help girls, teachers, parents, pediatricians and school nurses so fewer girls struggle or miss school because of menstruation or poverty or neglect.
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