Menstrual Health Project - Tanzania 2015

We recently spent two weeks in Mtwara, in southern Tanzania, teaching women and girls about menstrual health and how to manage their periods. We were so grateful to receive so many donations of money, flannels, wash bags, sewing kits and sanitary pads; and I thought it would be a good idea to write a blog about our time there and how we used the donations to equip the women in this community.

Menstrual Health Lessons

We were able to teach four lessons in three different schools, two primary schools and one secondary school. In Tanzania children don't start school until they are seven years old which means lots of girls start their periods when they are still in primary education. The first primary school had a student population of 1400, and our first lesson was to a class of 127!

Lucy reading a story about a school girl starting her period in class.

Our class of 127

Every lesson followed a basic plan which we adapted to suit the age group. We started by asking the girls whether they have a female role model in their lives who inspires them. Many of them answered with their mothers, older sisters and grandmothers who are the ones that care for them and provide them with school fees and uniform. It is important for the girls to have female role models as they live in a community where many of the leaders are men. It was cool to see that one of the primary schools had a female headteacher. The girls were then asked what they knew about puberty and the changes that happen to their bodies. They seemed to have pretty textbook answers which is reflective of the repetitive, learning the answer to the question, method of teaching used in many East African schools. All the same, it was encouraging to see that the girls were aware of the changes that should be happening in their bodies. 

Some of the girls taking part in a game about the menstrual cycle

head, shoulders, knees and toes!

This lead to teaching the girls how to say different body parts in English, which of course meant singing head, shoulders, knees and toes! We drew some diagrams on the board and labelled them in both Swahili and English. Then we went through the four stages of the menstrual cycle with the help of some flashcards, a diagram of a uterus and some red chalk! We played a game which involved the girls putting pictures in the right order.

Evie drawing the anatomy diagrams on the blackboard

For each girl we had prepared a pack to help them manage their periods. Each pack included a wash bag, some knickers, a bar of soap, a small sewing kit and two reusable sanitary pads (generously donated by Cheeky Wipes, Luna Landings, Earth Junki and sewn by our wonderful friends and family in the UK). All of the wash bags and knickers were donated by our incredible friends and churches back home. As mentioned in a previous blog post most women and girls in the developing world cannot afford disposable sanitary pads and have to use rags, leaves, socks and other things to manage their periods - which is a risk to their health. These reusable pads will help the girls to stay clean, stop them worrying about leaking onto their school uniforms and they can wash them and use them again!

Showing the girls what's in their packs

The girls looking through their packs

New knickers!

We gave the girls an opportunity to ask any questions they had about periods, puberty or the packs! In each class we were asked "is it ok to use pain relief when you have period cramps?" and this is because there is a local belief that taking paracetamol and other medicine can cause infection. Other questions included "is it normal to have pain during my period?" and "is it normal that my period doesn't come at the same time every month?". It was good to be able to reassure the girls about what is normal and create a safe, girls-only space where they felt comfortable to ask questions and receive advice. Hopefully the lessons will encourage the girls to talk about their menstrual health with their friends, mothers and sisters, and in the future - their daughters!

Me with some of the students

In one of the primary schools

Showing off their packs!

 The girls were very appreciative and the teachers all thanked us for coming and asked us to come back. A team from Go Mad are going out in the Autumn and we hope that they can reach out to more girls. Of course, two sanitary pads is not really enough; if only their was a group of local women who were producing reusable sanitary pads to sell...

Mikindani Women's Group

We first met with the women of Mikindani as they were down by the local water source, washing their clothes, children and tending to their crops. My Aunty Helen drew on her Swahili from when she lived in Tanzania in 1998 and invited the women to come to the church in the morning and speak about their problems as women.

On the morning of the meeting we welcomed 23 women into the church and gave each of them a name sticker. Soon we were pulling up more benches to accommodate for all the women who had come and started to regret the decision to do individual stickers!! However it was nice to be able to address the women by their names and make them feel welcome. Many of the women were Muslim and it may have been their first time inside the church. 

We began by asking the group about the problems they faced as women in their community. We spoke for a long time and covered many different problems. Having children they can't afford to feed or send to school, absent fathers, lack of beds and mosquito nets, paying for medical treatment, access to water and their daughters getting pregnant at a young age. One woman said "we breathe but we do not have life." The overriding theme was that they felt like they had no freedom. It was a real insight into the struggles these women face daily and we could tell that no one had ever asked them what it was like to be them. Just being listened to, having a voice and highlighting injustices is a freedom we often take for granted. 

I wish we could have dealt with all of their problems there and then but of course that wasn't possible. We had planned to teach the women about menstrual health and so we decided to focus on their worries about their teenage girls. Several of them had raised concerns about their daughters getting pregnant, and when I asked what age it was that they started to worry they said 12 or 13! They wanted to teach their daughters about contraception and family planning and for them to stay in school. We decided that teaching the group about menstrual health would equip them to talk to their daughters about periods and getting pregnant and the biology of it all. 

Putting the cards in the correct order to display the menstrual cycle

We explained the menstrual cycle to them and they seemed very interested in it. Many of them seemed to know very little about what actually goes on inside the body and we got them to put the pictures in order to encourage them to talk about it among themselves. We told them that a woman can get pregnant at any stage of her cycle, but highlighted when it is most likely for the egg to be fertilised. We also spoke about what it means when a woman misses her period and the different causes such as pregnancy, stress or weight loss. 

Discussing the menstrual cycle

Then we showed the women the reusable sanitary pads that we had brought with us and asked them what they thought. They really liked them and said they would be useful to use when they were working on their crops. We invited those who were interested to come along to a sewing workshop and learn how to make the pads themselves. 

Lucy, Sally and Evie explaining how to make the pad

Cutting out circles of material

A week later and it was time for our sewing workshop! Seven women had signed up at the initial meeting but nine arrived, plus Lucy our wonderful translator, and our friend Miriam who was married to the church's pastor. Mum did an excellent job of demonstrating how to make the pads with several Blue Peter style pads at different stages of production! We taught them how to make insert pads which are a bit simpler than the all-in-one pads. They all picked it up really quickly and it was lovely to see them sitting with each other and chatting as they sewed. 

Sally and Lucy explaining how much the materials cost at the local market

Miriam

One lady was encouraged by Graham, our project leader, to come along to the sewing workshop. She was reluctant because she said she couldn't sew but we'd noticed that she was a natural leader among the women in our first meeting and we knew it would be really valuable to have her there. Miriam has three daughters and a baby boy who she carried on her back. I took her to one side once the other women had started their pads and showed her how to sew the elastic and poppers on to the pads. I then handed her the needle and thread and watched her replicate exactly what I had just done. Unaweza! You can! She looked at me and smiled and I asked her if she could do it again. She spent the rest of the afternoon sewing elastic and poppers onto incomplete sanitary pads.

Evie helping to make circles

Helen sewing alongside Lucy

After a while we asked the women if they would like to go and finish their pads at home but they said no, they wanted to stay! One by one they completed their pads and proudly tapped us on the shoulder to show us. Each of them took home the pad that they had made as well as a pack that was made up similar to the ones given to the school girls. They were really happy with their wash bags and giggled like school girls when they pulled out the knickers! It was so good that we were able to bless them individually. As they left we watched them through the little windows of the church as they showed their friends what they had been doing.

At the end of our first sewing workshop

Two days later we held a second sewing workshop to teach the women how to make the all-in-one pad. Evie, Lucy and I were teaching a lesson at the secondary school so we left Sally, Helen, Trish and five women to start the workshop. When we came back there were 17! I was so happy to see so many women learning how to sew the pads and being equipped to manage their periods and teach their daughters about their menstrual health. 

We were aware that lots of the women had not been there on Tuesday to receive the packs so we decided to make some more up. Helen, Evie and I counted out the spare knickers, pads and soap. You know the story of Jesus feeding the 5000? Yeah it kinda felt a little bit like that, just with sanitary products and underwear! We just kept finding more resources! We had given to every woman that we had met so far and yet we had more that enough to give to these women too! We made up more packs for the sewing women to take home. Outside there was another project going on, the guys were involved in building concrete steps down to the village's water source (but that's a whole other blog post!) - and they were employing local women to carry water and concrete. We were able to give each of them a pack as well as some girls that we found working in the fields. It became clear that God had really blessed this project and we were so overwhelmed with blessings that we were able to share with these incredible women of Mikindani. There was talk of setting up a sewing group and we hope that a future team will be able to set them up with a business plan of how to produce and sell the sanitary pads, equipping them to make their own money and improve the menstrual health of local women and girls. 

Menstrual health is a global issue, affecting half of the population. Women should have access to sanitary products that enable them to manage their periods with dignity and without risk of infection. I want to thank each one of you who donated towards this project, you helped us to show these women that they are valued, that they have talents and that their voice is heard. I hope this is just the beginning of God's work in Mikindani and these women and girls can become change makers in their community.