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Uganda menstrual health
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Resource ID
81048
Access
Open
Contributed by
Ylva Seiff Berge
Uploading member
CARE Norway
Consent form provided?
Yes
Region
Central and East Africa
Image size
6720x4480
Country
Uganda
Theme
Sexual reproductive and maternal health, Health
Camera make / model
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Project/Donor
WoMena
Keywords
Health Worker, Hygiene/Sanitation, Refugee camps, Schools, Workshops/Training
Additional Keywords
Menstruation, menstrual hygiene, menstrual cup, ruby cup
Credit
Hajarah Nalwadda/CARE Uganda
Copyright
Hajarah Nalwadda/CARE Uganda
Date Image Taken
21 May 21
Caption
Ddwe Brigete (Guyi Mapenzi's grandmother) speaking during an interview at home.
This content was gathered by CARE Uganda as a part of CARE Norway’s campaign to mark the international Menstrual Hygiene Day 28th of May.
Several girls, their families and representatives from WoMena were intervieved about the challenges of menstruation in a refugee setting.
Mapenzi’s story:
Ngoyi Mapenz (17 years old)
Devy Brigade (80 years old), Mapezi’s grandmother
Tittel- The first time I got it, I knew nothing about menstruation
Mapenzi had nothing to help herself with the first time she got her period. She was one of 500 million women and girls who do not have access to adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management.
- When I got my period at school, there was nothing to do but to pack my things and go home, says Mapenzi who lives in a refugee camp in Uganda.
She is not alone. It is estimated that 1 in 10 girls in Africa miss out on schooling because of menstruation. For some, menstruation is such a big obstacle that they quit school altogether. Which makes them extra vulnerable to a life of poverty.
Shameful
- It is difficult for girls at school when they have their period. If the boys find out, they will make fun of you and bully you. They make you ashamed.
Mapenzi lives with her grandmother, but she had not talked to Mapenzi about menstruation, so when Mapenzi got her menstruation for the first time, she did not know what it was.
Like so many others, Mapenzi did not have much to manage her menstruation with than a few pieces of cloth.
- You risk missing school because you lack products to manage your menstruation, says Alice Mugeme, who volunteer at a WoMena project supported by CARE, which work to make it easier for girls in the refugee camp to handle their period.
Little water, no shower
- For many girls in the camp, it is difficult to deal with menstruation, if you have bled through your clothes, you have to go with the stain to look for water. Water resources are scarce here, so girls must go far to find water, and when there is little water you are not allowed to use water to shower.
Alice says that menstruation is something most people do not talk about.
- Girls who have not been to the course think it is shameful.
CARE works with the organization WoMena to make it less shameful and easier to deal with menstruation. Alice is one of those who arrange courses and she goes from door to door to spread information, so that girls will have the knowledge they need about their own bodies.
A menstrual cup can change everything
- The first time I got it, I knew nothing about menstruation. It was my friends who put me in touch with the project and they told me that I was going to get a menstrual cup, so I decided to join, Mapenzi says.
The menstrual cup the girls receive from CARE and Womena is easy to clean and can be reused for many years. It makes it easier for girls in the refugee camp to go to school and live a normal teenage life.
- Before, we only had pieces of cloth we could use, and it was not safe for us. Now we have menstrual cups, which I am very comfortable with, says Mapenzi.
Need more knowledge
Unfortunately, there are many, just like Mapenzi, who do not have enough information about their own body.
- A girl I met at one of the courses told us about her first experience. Her mother told her “You can no longer play around boys, you are going to get pregnant. On the football field, she forgot for a moment what her mother had said. Her mother beat her when she came home, Alice says.
More quotes from Mapenzi:
I used to go to school before my grandmother got blind. Now I can’t go to school and leave her alone at home, because no one will take care of her. I only have young sisters. I ended in my primary two.
From the trainings of WOMEN I have got to know more about menstruation hygiene management.
Marker lat / long: 1.7, 32.5 (WGS84)