Girls lack knowledge on menstruation, says advocate

MANY girls that have their period do not have knowledge about menstruation, and when their time comes, they are not ready, and so feel ashamed and embarrassed, Unicef PNG Youth advocate Leoshina Kariha says.
“By talking more about menstruation or period, we can break the stigma, taboos and myths which are stopping our girls and women from taking part in everyday activities like school and work,” Kariha said.
The Miss PNG and Miss Pacific Islands 2018-2019 was in Lae last Friday to attend activities related to Menstrual Hygiene Management Day and travelled to Situm Primary School in the Nawaeb district, Morobe, as part of her advocacy role with Unicef, where she advocated for period friendly toilets and access to clean water to ensure adolescent girls remained in school during their menstruation.
“Menstruation is a normal and healthy part of life for girls and women,” Kariha told students.
“We still have a long way to go in breaking the stigma and discrimination against girls that are menstruating partly because our customs and traditions tell us as girls and women that it makes us unclean and impure.”
“It should be celebrated because it is the process that indicates that we have grown and matured from being girls into women and are ready to create life.”
Kariha said raising awareness about menstruation in primary schools was important because girls could enter menstruation from as early as the fourth grade.
The event, organised by World Vision in partnership with Unicef, was part of a larger Wash project that was co-funded by the European Union and Unicef and was being implemented in four districts in PNG, including Nawaeb.
World Vision helped the Nawaeb District Development Authority implement the project that would improve the water and sanitation situation in rural schools, health centres and communities.
School head girl Priscilla Tura, said the awareness was vital to help citizens know the concepts and to practice safe, happy and healthy living.
“Many girls are being stigmatised in schools and in their own homes and right concepts need to be addressed to avoid such acts,” she said.
“I recommend that there should be proper sanitation products for girls provided in schools, and proper incinerators built in schools in order to help girls.”