Menstruation Education

However, Menstruation is a natural phenomenon; women and girls do not have the basic right to a dignified menstrual cycle in Nepal. This means that they are subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment, including abuse and violence. Menstruation is often viewed as a time of ‘impurity’ and results in wide ranging discriminatory beliefs and practices those vary according to intersecting factors such as ethnicity, caste, religious beliefs, geographical locations and levels of education. Women and girls are often treated as being untouchable during the menstruation time. The exclusionary practices, stigma and prohibitions surrounding menstruation, inherent in traditional beliefs and cultural heritage practices, have a negative impact on school attendance and employment, preventing women and girls from fully participating in economic and social life. This has become an emerging problem in Nepal. Due to the lack of informed plans, policies and programs, women and girls are not only deprived of human dignity during menstruation, but also social stigma and taboo on their health and education. We believe education plays a key role in dispelling myths about menstruation and impurity but often people are confined by social- cultural norms that are deeply rooted in society. They are denied their sexual and reproductive rights and such discrimination needs to be challenged.

Menstruation Education Resources

Menstruation is a cross sectorial issue, dominantly linked with education, human rights, reproductive health as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and gender sectors in Nepal. In the absence of informed planning, policies and programs, women and girls might be deprived of not only human dignity during their menstruation, but also suffering from social stigma and taboos around menstruation on their health and education.
In Nepal, women and girls do not have the basic right to a dignified menstrual cycle. This means that they are subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment, including abuse and violence. The exclusionary practices, stigma and prohibitions surrounding menstruation, inherent in traditional beliefs and cultural heritage practices, have a negative impact on school attendance and employment, preventing women and girls from fully participating in economic and social life. This has become an emerging problem in Nepal. Due to the lack of informed plans, policies and programs, women and girls are not only deprived of human dignity during menstruation, but also social stigma and taboo on their health and education. Majority teachers are skipping reproductive health and Menstruation content so students have rare understanding of physiology human body and its system. Therefore, A Menstruation education toolkits were developed to ease and less challenging for teacher and students while learning sexual reproductive health.

Resource kits for menstruation Education (R4ME)

The toolkit is a package of supplementary resource materials for teachers and students it includes:
1. Developed Teachers directives and student learning materials as per the school curriculum (class 4-12) from a team of stakeholders/ actors who has been involving in the sector for long time.
2. Translated version of Ruby’s World (Teachers Directives from WASH United Germany), Compilation of Menstruation Education Resource person’s Radio dialogues
3. Reference materials produced by different organizations even if it is not directly linked to the curriculum. (comics, story books, case studies etc )
4. Pre -piloting The above curriculum based reference materials has been pre-piloted in schools in Lalitpur and Kathmandu after 3 days of teacher training using materials with interactive and joyful teaching learning. A reflection workshop was conducted with all teachers and some student’s representatives to collect feedback which is incorporated into the Resource kits.