Menstrual FACTS and FICTION
- “7 million girls miss school every month because they don’t have sanitary wear”
This statement is FICTION and not a menstrual fact!
We (civil society, the media, Corporate South Africa and the public) are perpetuating a myth that is totally devoid of any facts” i.e. 7 million girls miss school because they don’t have sanitary wear”
I think the problem is that we have NO PROOF – which is why obtaining credible, reliable facts is HUGE and URGENT property for Dignity Dreams and the process has started.
- I’m not disputing that at any given time there are 7 million girls menstruating, but to say they stay at home is NOT correct
- There is already some backlash from other women and girls who say that if you really want to go to school you will plan
- Especially the older ladies are saying they had no choice – they were determined to get an education – no matter whether they had their periods or not
- According to STATS SA 2014 who surveyed 14 million learners:
- only 21.8% of girls do not complete their schooling as compared to boys – only 1% do not complete schooling
- Our own survey of 286 learners reveal the following:
- Number of girls who go to school
– whether they have pads or not: 200 70%
FACTS
‘Dignity Dreams celebrated its 4th birthday on 6 Feb 2017 and the past 4 years have been the happiest of my life.’ Sandra Millar.
How the journey started:
- I became aware of this problem on 6th Feb, when I visited a group of young girls aged 9 – 12 years old – in Grasskop (on behalf of Child Welfare) to find out what their urgent needs were
- That was the 1st time that I was told that these young girls have never had the luxury of sanitary towels – they were using socks filled with sand, paper, toilet paper etc. when they had their periods
- I suppose the easy part about establishing Dignity Dreams was finding a pattern, finding ladies to sew the pads, looking for donors an handing out our beautiful packs
- It soon became very clear to me that our approach was a “Band-Aid” approach – handing out our packs and explaining how to use them was NOT solving many other cultural and societal issues
- Our greatest problem was to find a sensitive and appropriate way to tackle the hundreds of myths and stigmas that are VERY real to these young girls i.e.
- Menstrual blood is dirty
- They can’t bath during their menstrual cycle
- They can’t play sport
- They smell
- They can’t cook food
- They can’ take place in any social activities – some are even prevented from going to church.
- Far more worrying to us was:
- They had NO idea what a “Menstrual Cycle” was
- They’d stay away from school because they believe they were bewitched or they were scared, frightened and alone
- They had absolutely NO idea of what their body parts looked like and what the biological processes were
- They didn’t know they were fertile once they started their periods – perhaps this is why the pregnancy rate is soo high.
- So we had to revise our whole strategy to include age appropriate conversations about Menstrual Health and Hygiene – this is a long, but VERY necessary programme.
- We use aids such as beautiful charts to walk them through the process and encourage an interactive session.
- For this reason we have printed a booklet dealing as best we can with all the above issues.
- The one thing that still needs a lot of work to make boys and young men part of the conversation – we can’t empower girls and young women while the opposite sex also have NO idea what’s happening to their peers or in fact, their own bodies.
- A large percentage of these young girls don’t even have panties, so our packs include panties.
- Tackling Unemployment
- We have set up our own workshop, trained previously unemployed women to sew and pay them per item produced.
- They run their own Micro Businesses.
- We have also transferred skills such as stock control, quality control, basic bookkeeping
- The toughest part of this exercise was to make them understand that they WORK FOR THEMSELVES
- Any inferior work is rejected.
- Quality
- The SABS had approved our pads for absorbency – a normal pad must absorb 5ml of fluid – our Dignity Dreams packs absorb 18.9 ml
- Although they stated that the pads will last for 5 years, we can’t lay claim to that statement because we are only 4 years old.
- We are very adamant that our pads must be worn with pride and comfort – which is why we are currently on prototype No 7 and probably as time goes by we must keep listening to the young girls, test our product constantly improve our product
- We are also aware that the national numbers being bandied about i.e. “7 million girls miss school every month” is in fact not true.
January 2016 to December 2016 total of 23,366 |
Province |
Packs Distribution |
Gauteng |
12710 |
Mpumalanga |
2105 |
North West Province |
1412 |
Limpopo |
990 |
Kwa-Zulu Natal |
3977 |
Cape Town |
722 |
Eastern Cape |
397 |
Western Cape |
1 |
Northern Cape |
200 |
Free State |
300 |
Namibia |
414 |
Lesotho |
10 |
Zambia |
128 |
Total |
23366 |
Help us extend our reach in the future – Donate TODAY!
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- Our goal is to secure funding for 1,000 packs per month.
- This would mean that 1,000 learners will have sanitary wear for at least the next 3 years
- We can guarantee work for our MICRO BUSINESSES – I’d hate to disappoint them due the fact that we have no orders.
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- Measuring the impact and success of the project
- A decrease of the following:
- School pregnancies
- Vaginal infections
- A renewed sense of self-worth
- The ability to make informed choices
- about their bodies:
- when they want to have children
- about their futures
Conclusion
The day that I found out about this problem I cried, not for the girls, but because I’d been involved in the NPO sector for 19 years and I was so angry that I was not aware of this problem. I couldn’t believe how ignorant I was. Until that day I believed “Poverty” meant not having enough a home or food, now I know “Poverty” means:
- A poverty of love
- Poverty of nurturing
- Poverty of education
- Poverty of self-worth
That’s why I love what I do because slowly but surely, we will make a difference.
Written by Sandra Millar February 2017.
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