“My monthly cycle, menses, Aunt Flo, my period. The words that many of us whispered about as young girls brought giggles, tears, anxiety and a lot of questions. Now think back … what would it have been like if there were no sanitary means of any kind available to you. What if there were no toilets, no toilet paper, no pads, no tampons, no water? Can you imagine the emotional and mental discomfort counting the days until ‘that time’ came around again? Consider this: Globally, 100 million girls currently enrolled in school may drop out — because of their period.
The natural process of menstruation comes as a big problem to women and girls in many parts of the world. In order to stem the flow of monthly periods, the women and girls use anything from rags, tree leaves, old clothes, toilet paper, newspapers, cotton wool, cloths or literally anything that can do the job. Most girls from poor, rural communities do not use anything at all.
Girls who lack sanitary pads often use crude and unhygienic methods, such as inserting cotton wool to block the flow, which can migrate to their uterus. In urban slums, girls are known to collect used pads from garbage dumps, and wash them for their own use. These measures often result in serious health complications. It is common to tear blue jeans and use that fabric as a sanitary pad, but the resulting chaffing often causes extremely painful and embarrassing boils to develop.
To combat these problems, they resort to another “solution” that bears serious consequences: prostitution. Yes. You need to read that again. Some of the girls engage in prostitution/paid sex, so that they can raise the money required to buy sanitary pads, putting themselves at the risk of HIV and infection.”
The Women’s Ministries group at the Fulton Heights Corps in Grand Rapids, Michigan invited Donna Terpstra founder of It’s Our Mission: Period! to speak to their group and educate them on the needs on women and young women in countries in Africa. As described in the paragraphs above, without the needed menstrual protection young women are left staying home or subjecting themselves to health dangers in order to maintain their menstrual cycle. The women at Fulton Heights were able to participate in helping these young women by preparing around 40 kits that they cut, pinned, & sewed prior to the event for Donna to take with her.
Learn more about this organization by visiting their website www.its-our-mission-period.org
