In August 2013, HEEALS carried out a monitoring and
evaluation exercise on its Water Sanitation Menstrual Hygiene and Girl Education projects
in three schools following the delivery of previous awareness training.
Results of the monitoring and evaluation are now available to view in
our HEEALS report.
One issue to consider is that despite many girls having a good
awareness and knowledge of Menstrual Hygiene, they are unable to
practice what they know due to lack of facilities available in school.
The bad conditions of toilet facilities were reported by most
participants, who stated that there was nowhere to place sanitary pads
and no soap or water for hand washing. Similarly, many girls displayed
an awareness of the importance of hand washing, yet were unable to put
this into practice at school.
Schools greatly influence the behavior and mentality of children –
they look to school as a source of knowledge. Yet through lack of
sanitation facilities, schools are contributing to creating the
mentality that hand washing and hygiene practices are not necessary.
Lack of Menstrual Hygiene facilities lead to menstrual hygiene becoming
an invisible issue which is not addressed, increasing the
embarrassment of young girls to discuss Menstrual Hygiene.
Another key point to consider is that most girls reported being
treated differently by their family during menstruation, and cited
parental choice as the main factor in the girl’s education. Parents need
to be included in Menstrual Hygiene and Water Sanitation awareness
projects as well as teachers and male students, to develop understanding
surrounding these issues and to support girls in obtaining a good
education.
Read the full report here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3-sg3TTDoppTmdYdW0yWUVEc3M/edit
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