Girls Glory - Improve Menstrual Health in India

How fulfilling to start the report with these beautiful testimonies of Govt school students Sneha and Manasa! Though we are in 20^th century, some parts of our state are underprivileged and still under-equipped to maintain a clean environment. Our “Girls Glory” project aims to educate the future citizen of this country to be equipped with knowledge of WaSH and Menstrual hygiene to see Swachh Bharat coming into reality. Our projects are designed to provide the required facilities in the Govt schools to build a toilet and washing unit facilities and teach the students on hygiene practices. 

It is a privilege to work with the young generation by sowing the seed in their hearts and minds. After our MHM Workshop sessions, Sneha came up saying that no one taught her these essential things including her mom. Here is what she says, “The old toilet in the school was untidy and smelly, during the rainy season drainage water use to fill-in the toilets as the central drainage are close to the school building. We were not able step into the toilet. Many a time, we have spotted snakes inside the toilet because of the drain water. So, I used to skip coming to school during rainy season. It was a tough time for all the students and specially for Girls during their menstrual cycle. I truly want to Thank Reaching Hand for their Girls Glory project. I am relieved of the fear of snakes inside the restroom. Thanks for building the toilet in our school. It gives a self-esteem and confidence to come to school without any hesitation. Hand washing unit and Incinerator facilities are additional to encouraged me to come to school even during my periods. WASH and Menstrual hygiene workshops changed our mindset, we learn how to maintain personal hygiene during periods. I learnt how to use pads, hygiene during periods and preventing infections. Apart from that we received WaSH and MHM kit. I will never forget these learning, I will share the information with my friends too”. 

Manasa is a student of 7^th grade in GKPS Nagsandara school. She is one of the WaSH committee leaders. Here is her testimony in her own words, “After the Workshop, Reaching Hand has organized WaSH committee and the committee leaders were selected through nomination, I was one among them, it was an exciting moment for me. The WaSH committee leaders are responsible to monitor the cleanliness of the built toilets and other facilities. I started lovingly encouraging my friends to keep the washroom clean after the use. This has given a great result in our school. We are thankful to Reaching Hand for this facility.

Menstrual Hygiene Management: 

Menstrual Hygiene awareness programs were conducted in 6 schools for 350 Adolescent girls. Girl children were oriented on importance of maintaining and practicing menstrual hygiene, safe disposal of sanitary napkins, myths and taboos etc. Workshops were started with the icebreaking session to make the beneficiaries comfortable with the topic. 

Below were the discussion points: 

• Socio-cultural beliefs and taboos surrounding menstruation
• Girls’ understanding and knowledge of menstruation
• Current menstrual hygiene practices in schools
• Teaching of puberty
• Interpersonal relationships and
• Psycho-social support
• Recommendations for better menstrual hygiene management
• Premenstrual symptoms
• Balance food habits
• Tips and exercise to manage the period cramps 

Benefits: 

• Girl students have an understanding on how to calculate their menstrual cycle, which was one of the major drawbacks as most of the girls come unprepared to school during their menstruation days.
• Workshops created the environment for the students to openly discuss their issues and problems faced during their menstruation.
• In total, 1509 students were benefitting from our sessions. 

Installation of Incinerator: 

We have installed incinerators in 6 schools and oriented the girl students and the school staffs on how to use it in the correct manner. Explained the “do’s & don’ts” while using the incinerator. 

Sensitization Workshops in School:

Our sensitization workshops were focused on Group discussion, brainstorming to recall their learning. These were the follow up session on WaSH (Boys & Girls) and MHM for Girls. It was overwhelming to see their responses and many of them started practicing the WaSH techniques already.

As someone rightly said, “Cleanliness is the first law of Health", Reaching Hand organized a Health and Hygiene and Menstrual Hygiene workshop in 6 Government schools. The workshops focused on building awareness about WASH and MHM practices.

Our workshop had visual aids and participatory activities to make it eventful and easy to follow. 

"Change is the constant"! As the environment changes day by day, its important to change our behaviour and lifestyle. Briging this change from the student level, helps the household and the community. Any change in behavior is difficult to achieve, particularly in a short term, as it is very personal and influenced by cultue and social aspects, particularly menstrual practices.

Hence, we must address it simultaneously at different levels - household and schools, to increase the chances of its acceptance and implementation in the day to day life. The workshops therefore began with helping the children understand their current knowledge and practices pertaining to hygiene. The session closed with participants gaining a clear understanding of the best practices and changing their behavior and practices in terms of WASH and MHM.

METHODOLOGY USED:

The participatory workshop included activities, open discussion, scenarios, Storytelling, pictorial images, MHM and Hand washing animated images. All these aimed at facilitating an easy understanding by all the age group of students. 

WASH AWARENESS PROGRAMME:

Personal hygiene plays a major role to protect our health and to live a healthy life. WASH awareness programme was conducted in 6 schools. GHPS Doddaballapura city, GHPS Thubgere, GHS Hoshalli, GHPS.Tavarekere, GHPS; Doddaagrahara, GHPS Hoisalkatte C N Halli Tumkur.for 1190 students. Beneficiaries were oriented on importance Of maintaining cleanliness in restrooms, hygienic use of toilets, role of personal hygiene including hand wash.

WASH AWARENESS PROGRAMME:

Around 1190 students were benefitted by our workshops. 

Sensitization covered the following major components 

• Oral Hygiene (with 4 steps)
• Bathing Ritual
• Hair Care
• Foot Hygiene

• Toileting Hygiene

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  Hand Hygiene (with 6 steps of hand washing)
• Coughing and Sneezing Hygiene
• Skin Hygiene

MENSTRUAL HYGIENE MANAGEMENT:

Menstrual hygiene awareness programs were conducted in 6 schools for 622 girls. Students were oriented on the importance of maintaining and practicing menstrual hygiene, safe disposal of sanitary napkins, myths and taboos etc.

Workshops were started with the ice breaking session to make the beneficiaries comfortable with the topic. Following inputs were imparted to the children during the session: 

• Socio-cultural beliefs and taboos surrounding menstruation
• Girls’ understanding and knowledge of menstruation
• Current menstrual hygiene practices in schools
• Teaching of puberty
• Interpersonal relationships
• Psycho-social support
• Recommendations for better menstrual hygiene management
• Students were educated on importance of adopting good menstrual hygiene practice to enjoy good
• Health in pursuing their education; best practices on hygiene management

OUTCOMES:

• Girls have an understanding on how to calculate their menstrual cycle, which was one of the major drawbacks as most of the girls come un`prepared to school during their menstruation days
• Menstrual Hygiene Management was explained during the sensitization workshop.
• Girls are now acquainted with the proper usage and disposal of sanitary napkins.
• Workshops created the environment for the students to openly discuss their issues and problems faced during their menstruation.

 WASH COMMITTEE: 

WASH Committee were formed in all the 6 schools. Prior to that, students who were interested in the health leadership were short listed and oriented to participate in the campaign/election. After the campaign, all the students exercised their franchise and cast their votes to select their leaders.Totally 622 girls actively participated and casted their valuable votes and elected their WASH committee leaders in all the 6 schools.

WASH committee leader is responsible for sanitation cleanliness in schools. The team will be rewarded during our monitoring visits for the cleanliness of the restrooms.

MENSTRUPEDIA COMIC BOOK DISTRIBUTION:

Menstrupedia comic is the period guide for girls of 9 years old and above. It is a guide to educate the girls on menstruration.It aims to help girls understand the process of puberty in women, It seeks to destroy myths and to normalize the biological process. 

It helps girls to understand their bodies better and not let society shame them for their biological make. It addresses the adolescence girls who haven’t started their menstruration cycle yet and want to learn more about it. Also it helps the girls who have just started their cycle and want advice on how to prepare themselves.

INSTALLATION OF INCINERATOR:

Installed incinerator in all the 6 -schools and oriented the girls and the school staffs on how to use it in a right manner. Explained the "do's and don’ts" while using the incinerator.

Case study:

I am Mounica studing in GHS Hoshalli school, Our school is located in Tumkur rural area, Reaching hand Staff was conducted the Health and hygiene session for all the school students ,it was very useful session we were not aware of the Hand Washing and Tooth brushing steps it was a great leaning for all of us.

I didn’t have fear about puberty but I didn’t know the "do and don’ts" of Menstrual Hygiene practices. The last session was very interesting and helpful. Girl children were oriented on the importance of maintaining and practicing menstrual hygiene, safe disposal of sanitary napkins, myths and taboos. 

About Toilet building, the one which we had was very old, not clean, smelly, adolescent girls were not very comfortable during their periods, as lack of disposal facility and due to lack of knowledge girls use to throw used pads in school premises. Now we not only have a clean toilet built by Reaching Hand but also incinerator to burn used pads. Thanks to Reaching Hand.