Menstruation and the third world

I went ot a lunch to support I think it's called greenfields Africa set up by a couple who gave a talk. They provide girls with a sanitary reusable pack which lasts two years, made locally, and costs £5 so the girls don't miss school. Brilliant idea don't you think?

My mother used to use reusable sanitary towels - made with torn up old sheets, which were washed and reused. She is 98. Not an unusual occurrence back then.

Who remembers the pads with the belts? They were so awful. But, this idea is brilliant. Wonder what school girls here would think though?

I was thinking along similar lines, ww. Dealing woth menstruation is just one of the things that people in developing countries find more difficult than we do here. Fortunately, just as things changed here over the last century or so, and improved for dealing with menstruation and other stuff, things are beginning to change for the better in developing countries now. I'll shove in another plug for ourworldindata.org where you can see such changes for yourselves.

My mother and her sister did have disposable sanitary pads but they had to put them on the kitchen (living room) fire. Fortunately my grandfather was, in my mother's words, "very good at looking the other way".

In the 1960s, I taught for five years in a girls' boarding school in Kenya, two of those years as housemistress, and never heard a word about problems in dealing with menstruation. I have no idea how my pupils coped with it, but they must have, because there were very few unexplained absences, and I don't remember any of them squatting over holes in the ground. Now I am feeling slightly guilty because I - and, I suppose, my colleagues - never gave this issue a thought, albeit this was 50 years ago and perhaps we were more inhibited in talking about it than we would be now.

I remember sanitary towels with those little belts. Mum gave me the talk, but did say I could talk to Dad if she was out and I needed to . OK so you may think, but I wasn't shown how to fix the darned things, and in my naiviety wondered how on earth I could get my legs through those tiny loops.

Those belts were so appalling and the towels moved and chafed!! Stick on pads were much better!

Yes mensuration simply was not a topic for conversation. I suspect the girls you taught felt the same anno

Laughing out loud here, Auntieflo

Auntieflo

I think you had to use safety pins on the early belts but later there was a sort of hook thing, wasn't there? Remember coping with that AND a roll-on, suspenders and stockings?

Look up "Days for Girls" to see how important this subject is.
www.daysforgirls.org/
I don't know how to make this a link so unless it is automatic perhaps someone more technologically savvy than me will do this please?!

Anyway I do urge you to take a look at the website and if at all possible to join a group near to you or even start one up yourself. Help to give women and girls around the world a real chance to get an education or to start a business and not be at the mercy of anyone - for example those seeking sexual favours in exchange for a young girl's monthly sanitary protection. It is a really worthwhile organisation with which to become involved even in a small way and can make such a difference to whole communities.