Web Analytics

fundsforNGOs - Grants and Resources for Sustainability

Grants and Resources for Sustainability

You are here: Home / Proposals / Create Awareness on Menstrual Hygiene Management among Marginalized and Vulnerable Populations

Create Awareness on Menstrual Hygiene Management among Marginalized and Vulnerable Populations

Menstruation is the most natural bio-physiological phenomenon in a women’s life cycle, indeed of human existence, and menstrual hygiene is fundamental to the dignity and well-being of women and girls. The primary goal of the proposed project will be to create an enabling environment and facilitate the marginalized and vulnerable populations to address their concerns around menstrual hygiene management and better their quality of life. The primary aim of the proposed project will be on creating sustainable solutions, improving access to sanitation
Services, facilitating and addressing the information needs of women and girls on menstrual hygiene and women’s health, linking them to healthcare services for treatment of UTI and genital infection and related ailments and the safe disposal of menstrual waste with specific objectives to build an enabling environment so that the girls feel supported and comforted in schools during their menstrual cycle; To increase the capacity of selected schools to effectively manage and sustain menstrual hygiene and sanitation practices; and to increase awareness on proper hygiene and sanitation practices among girls to enable them to cope up with taboos, myths and misconception.

Project Background

Menstruation is the most natural bio-physiological phenomenon in a women’s life cycle, indeed of human existence, and menstrual hygiene is fundamental to the dignity and well-being of women and girls.

Globally, approximately 52% of the female population (26% of the total population) is of reproductive age.  In India, it is estimated that 200 million women have a poor understanding of menstrual hygiene practices. Twenty-three per cent of girls in India drop out of school soon after reaching puberty.

Menstruation a Taboo

However, the subject of menstruation however, is too often taboo, and has many negative cultural attitudes associated with it, including the idea that menstruating women and girls are “contaminated‟, “dirty‟ and “impure‟.

The issue of menstrual hygiene is also layered with guilt and shame, myths and misconceptions that have social and religious roots. This is further complicated by absence of complete information among women and girls of reproductive age group about reproductive health and the process of menstruation.

Project Objectives

The primary goal of the proposed project will be to create an enabling environment and facilitate the marginalized and vulnerable populations to address their concerns around menstrual hygiene management and better their quality of life.

In other words, our efforts will be aimed at consistently creating pathways to address their concerns through partnerships (with government and non-government bodies) and innovations to empower the students, enable them to collectively assert and advocate for vulnerability reduction. This will range from establishing behaviour change, to ensuring proper service provisioning to strengthening their access to major schemes and programs to setting up innovative livelihood models around MHM.

The aim will therefore be on creating sustainable solutions, improving access to sanitation services, facilitating and addressing the information needs of women and girls on menstrual hygiene and women’s health, linking them to healthcare services such as RTI, UTI and related ailments and the safe disposal of menstrual waste.

Project Goal

Goal: The primary aim of the proposed project will be on creating sustainable solutions, improving access to sanitation services, facilitating and addressing the information needs of women and girls on menstrual hygiene and women’s health, linking them to healthcare services for treatment of UTI and genital infection and related ailments and the safe disposal of menstrual waste.

Specific Objectives:

    • To build an enabling environment so that the girls feel supported and comforted in schools during their menstrual cycle;
    • To increase the capacity of selected schools to effectively manage and sustain menstrual hygiene and sanitation practices;
    • To increase awareness on proper hygiene and sanitation practices among girls to enable them to cope up with taboos, myths and misconception;
    • Formation and strengthening of the Child Cabinet to sustain the intervention.

Expected Result

    • Six thousand (6000) school girls will receive support through proper knowledge, awareness and education on menstruation and related hygiene practices;
    • Fifteen (15) schools will be supported to establish sanitation facilities, like sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators to manage menstrual hygiene. This will enable the girls to attend school when they are menstruating.

 Some of the measurable indicators of the project would be:

      • Strengthening of the School Cabinet, to enable it to take forward the initiative by spreading awareness and ownership among other students and sustaining the intervention. It will also reach out to the larger community through family and peer groups on issues relating to safe menstrual hygiene behaviour.
      • Reach out to ten thousand (10,000) students in twenty-five (25) schools through six (6) intensive MHM sessions, health screening camps, day celebration, IEC development etc.
      • Improve menstrual hygiene through better personal hygiene, the use of disposable low-cost sanitary napkins and the proper disposal of sanitary napkins amongst a minimum 30% of students, across twenty-five (25) schools
      • Strengthen behaviour change in hygiene practices such as hand washing after defecation, storing water in closed containers and the disposal of waste in bins amongst a minimum of 40% of students across 25 schools.
      • Raising awareness on UTI, menstrual hygiene and basic personal and household hygienic practices amongst at least 40% of the total number of students across twenty-five (25) schools.
      • An improvement of health seeking behaviour among the girls by at least from baseline data.
      • Emergence of at least 25 (1 each in of the 25 schools) best practices on hygiene and sanitation and the effect of behaviour change on the health of girls.
      • Increased school attendance of at least 25% among targeted girls supported by this project.
      • Infrastructural improvements such as napkin vending machines, incinerator in twenty-five (25) schools, thereby ensuring an enabling environment for students.
      • More importantly, reducing the stigma and isolation of girls and breaking the silence and taboos associated with menstruation amongst 50% of targeted students across twenty-five (25) schools.

Activities

To achieve these results the following activities will be conducted.

    •  Consultation will be held with teachers and the School Management Committee (SMC) to address the issue at the management level.  The Consultation, which will be held prior to launching the project, will involve the Teacher-in-Charge, representatives of the SCM and parents. The points that will be discussed with them are:
      • The need to guide adolescent girls when they are undergoing physical and psychological changes.
      • Provide help and support to adolescent girls to enable them to understand the physical and psychological changes they are undergoing and the scientific reasons behind the changes.
      • The importance of school sanitation in the context of creating a safe and hygiene environment in schools and thereby facilitating a good academic environment.
      • Capacity building of teachers on creating awareness on menstrual hygiene management among students.
    • To raise awareness among students MHM sessions will be conducted for the girls on hygiene (personal and school cum environmental hygiene); the science behind menstruation; related taboos, myths and misconception; and how to manage menstruation hygienically. Pre and post assessment sessions will also be conducted to assess the impact of MHM intervention among students; The components of the discussion will cover:
      • General hygiene including personal hygiene and environmental cum school hygiene
      • The physiological, emotional and behavioural changes that occur during puberty
      • The basics of menstruation and menstruation-related issues to challenge negative attitudes, perceptions and taboos
      • Health and wellbeing during menstruation
      • Information on good menstrual hygiene practices and their impact on reproductive health

Assessment indicators:

Some of the measurable indicators of the project would be:

    • Creation of at least 100 Change Agents from within the school, who will further spread awareness and ownership among the other students on safe menstrual hygiene behaviour.
    • Improve menstrual hygiene through better personal hygiene, the use of disposable low-cost sanitary napkins and the proper disposal of sanitary napkins amongst a minimum of 70% students.
    • Strengthen behaviour change in hygiene practices such as hand washing after defecation, storing water in closed containers, collecting household waste in bins amongst 70% students
    • Raise awareness on UTI, menstrual hygiene and basic personal and household hygienic practices among at least 70% students.
    • An improvement of health seeking behaviour among the women and girls by at least 50% from baseline data.
    • Emergence of at least 10 best practices on hygiene and sanitation and the effect of behaviour change on girls’ health

Planned steps of the project:

    • One Year Duration:
    • Programme of the project:

Project Implementation Strategy

Raising Awareness about MHM

The proposed project will address issue of menstrual hygiene management at various levels- students, teachers, mid-may meal workers, non-teaching staff and parents.

In the school level the focus of our interaction with adolescent girls will be on:

    • Managing their own menstruation hygienically, to maintain their health and that of others, this includes making, washing, drying and disposing of sanitary materials safely.
    • Supporting students’ teachers, mid-may meal workers, non-teaching staff and parents with information on good menstrual hygiene practices – especially to younger pre-adolescent girls for menstruation.
    • Addressing barriers to water and sanitation for the hygienic management of menstruation with privacy and dignity.
    • Challenging negative attitudes and perceptions around menstruation.

Community Mobilization: Area Mapping, Focus Group Discussions, village level meetings, capacity building exercises

As a first step towards sensitization of students we will undertake basic rapport building exercises with them through discussion on basic health and hygiene and the topics of discussion throughout the project period. Through these interactions they will be familiarized about the project; and we can also elicit their expectations and support for the project.

We will also organize various capacity building exercises for the target group of the project. The capacity building process will involve not only understanding of menstrual hygiene management, but will also include hands-on trainings and exposure visit to organizations that have established models around MHM, low-cost sanitary napkins/tampons. This will ensure learning from best practices both nationally and locally. Through capacity building exercises we envisage emergence of 40 Change agents from within the school.

Organize Local Campaigns/Celebration of Days 

In addition to the health camp we will organize, school cleanliness campaign/ day celebrations, poster/ collage/ slogan competition every three months, on one key theme. These campaigns will coincide with various national and international days such as Hand Washing Day/ Menstrual Hygiene Day/ Toilet Day and local festivals and events. The campaigns will be designed and planned in consultation with the target groups.

The thrust of the campaign will be to educate them and increase their involvement in the issue of not only MHM but also including: organizing collective action or voluntary service to clean up surroundings, reduce and prevent unhygienic practices like littering, open urination and defecation, repeated use of cloth during menstruation, personal hygiene, among others.

Health Camps in partnership with local government health clinics

We will also hold health camps at periodic intervals to strengthen education on hygiene, reproductive and menstrual health and enable access to clinical services on RTI, UTI in partnership with existing non-government and government health centres, hospitals and clinics. During the clinics the beneficiaries will not only be screened but medicines too will be provided.

The project team will enrol and register beneficiaries and based on their needs the provisioning of services at the health camp will be worked out.

Beneficiaries

    • Who are the beneficiaries? Where are they located?

The proposed action will be adopted in twenty-five (25) secondary and higher secondary schools covering 10,000 students (approx.). The selection criteria set will include indicators of schools on hygiene and sanitation practices, the presence and use of sanitary facilities, the number of students enrolled and other sanitary facilities for girls. The level of participation of beneficiary schools will also be developed and shared during the project launch through a Consultation. And the project will extend its outreach to communities through meetings with parents, School Management Committees (SMC) and Self-Help Group (SHGs).