Last year SRHR Adventures hosted a “Menstruation Matters Prose/Poetry Contest” in Commemoration of World Menstrual Hygiene.

The aim of this project was “To shatter the taboo of menstruation and to foster healthy conversations about this beautiful physiological process.”

“Every month, millions of adolescent girls around the world face a miserable cycle of pain, discomfort, shame, anxiety, and isolation when their menstrual period arrives. In many low-income and middle-income countries, access to sanitary products such as pads, tampons, or cups is limited, and girls often resort to using proxy materials such as mud, leaves, or animal skins to try to absorb the menstrual flow. Appropriate and hygienic infrastructure—including waste disposal mechanisms, soap, and water for washing, and safe, private, and accessible toilets—is rarely available or sustainable. This absence of facilities, coupled with the shame and fear of exposing their menstruation, mean that many adolescent girls are forced to miss school during their period; consequently, in many rural resource-poor settings, adolescent girls who are already disadvantaged by social norms miss a quarter of their education opportunities. And this is not confined to developing countries—a recent study by Plan International UK also reported menstrual-related school absences. One in ten girls aged 14–21 years in the UK can’t regularly afford menstrual products, forcing some to stay home from school, and 42% have resorted to using makeshift sanitary ware such as paper and socks.

However, period poverty is a broader issue than one of the economy. Because of entrenched stigma and taboos, menstruation is rarely discussed in families or schools, and menarche often arrives suddenly to girls with little or no knowledge of what is happening. A UNICEF study showed that one in three girls in south Asia had no knowledge of menstruation before their first period, and 48% of girls in Iran thought that menstruation was a disease. Often considered a shameful, dirty, female weakness, the secrecy surrounding menstruation has permeated every aspect of society, nurturing superstitions and taboos that are passed on between generations. In many communities, menstruating girls and women are still banned from kitchens, crop fields, or places of worship”.

Winning Entries