World Menstrual Hygiene Day

Menstrual Hygiene Day (MH Day), observed on May 28, is an annual global event held to raise awareness about the difficulties that women and girls experience as a result of menstruation and to promote solutions that address these difficulties. This day gives an opportunity to emphasize the value of menstruation care and raise awareness about the problems that women without access to sanitary items face.

Menstrual Health Day also serves as a forum for advocating for the inclusion of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in local, national, and global policies, as well as programs, initiatives, and activities throughout global development sectors.

The theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day 2023 is: making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030. The main objective is to create a society in which no one is held back because they menstruate by 2030 #MHDay2023.

Speaking to the press, Ms. Aderonke Ogunleye-Bello, Executive Director FAME Foundation, calls for an end to the stigmatization of women.

“Although menstruation is an essential aspect of a woman’s life, it is a nightmare for more than 1.2 billion women worldwide who lack access to even the most basic forms of sanitary facilities during their monthly cycles. Menstrual hygiene is important to the health and well-being of girls and women.

For every person who menstruates, access to sanitary products, clean, secure places to use them and the freedom to handle their period without embarrassment or stigma is important. Millions of women and girls experience shame, exclusion, and discrimination due to one completely normal natural function: their periods.

Negative attitudes and ignorance regarding menstruation hinder the potential of women and girls. Too frequently, girls miss out on school and jobs because of a lack of sanitary facilities and supplies to simply go about their daily lives while menstruating, or because they are burdened by embarrassment and shame from their communities.

Without menstrual products, women, and girls, who menstruate, are compelled to manage their periods using improvised products like ripped clothes and rags, which may cause infection.

Young girls in schools still lack confidence when they do not have access to pads. Some of them also avoid attending school because they do not have access to sanitary pads during menstruation. Some schools also lack water and a secure location to change and dispose their pads.

The safety of women and girls is also in danger without adequate facilities for personal hygiene. Women who are compelled to go into the open to deal with their period demands may be vulnerable to physical abuse and psychological damage and in severe circumstances, period stigma has tragically taken the lives of women and girls.

Today is the day to end negative norms associated with menstruation and increase awareness of the existing shortages of menstrual items, services, and education.”

She urged the government to provide WASH facilities that are designed specifically to meet the requirements of girls and women who are menstruating especially for young girls in school and to also provide pads and menstrual health items as part of relief assistance in order to eradicate period poverty.

She also encouraged schools to increase awareness about the need of proper and sufficient menstrual hygiene management for teenage girls, both in and out of the classroom.

She also emphasized the need of creating an atmosphere free from stigma, abuse, and discrimination atmosphere in which women and girls can make educated decisions about their lives and bodies, including menstrual health.