Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa water, Sanitation May-June2015 Vol. 10 No.3 | Page 34

Hygiene

‘I’m a Girl. And I’m Poor. And When
I Get My Period, It Holds Me Back.’
By Aaisha Dadi Patel

without fear, and get the information they need about
their natural physical cycle.
Transforming attitudes and practices will require a wide
coalition. CEOs, national leaders and village elders,
women’s rights and health advocates, global policymakers
and others need to put menstruation far higher on the
global agenda.
Governments, for example, can introduce policies to
ensure that girls and women have separate, private toilet
facilities in schools and at the workplace, access to essential
products -- cloths, pads and menstrual cups -- and the
means to dispose of and clean them.
Critically -- and most difficult -- national and community
leaders must speak out to change attitudes, upend customs
that restrain menstruating women and girls and promote
basic education about periods.
Inspiring projects are underway. In India, a non-profit
called Utthan helps women establish household sanitation
systems offering them privacy and safety. The Kenyan
government now exempts sanitary cloths from the national
value-added tax, and the Indian government has amended
the national sanitation policy to include menstrual
hygiene.
In 1900s Europe, menstruation was a taboo perpetuated
by religious and cultural myths. In 2015, British tennis star
Heather Watson recently shocked the world by ascribing
her Australian open defeat to ‘girl things.’ This is not a
developing world issue, nor a women’s issue alone.
It’s time to make safe, hygienic and private menstruation
a global priority, with dedicated advocacy, funding and
policies. By lifting the veil of silence, we open the door
to action that can transform the lives of women and girls
around the world.
About the Author
Chris W. Williams is the Executive Director, Water Supply
and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).

An adorable animation from Irise International, marking
Global Menstrual Hygiene Day, will hit you right in the
feels. It starts with a little girl, excited to be growing up
and going to school, hopeful about everything her life
might bring - college, a job, a home, a family - until she
gets her period and everything falls apart.
“I’ll not get a job, or a house, or a better life because I’m a
girl, and I’m poor, and when I get my period, it holds me
back,” says