Menstruation in Africa

Menstruation while it being a natural process, does have a negative social stigma. In Africa this is worse than most countries. Not very many menstruation pads or tampon companies and in Africa and they are extremely expensive. Women and girls use basically anything; from rags, tree leaves or bark, old clothes, toilet paper, newspapers, feathers, cotton wool or cloths. People from poor rural communities don’t use anything.

Image Source: Tony Karumba via Getty Image (found on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nelly-lukale/stand-up-tall-and-break-t_b_5405523.html)

Since tampons and pads are very expensive, and old rags and clothes many give them infections many girls prostitute themselves to raise the money to buy pads. They often have unprotected sex because condoms are also very expensive.

Young girls are forced to skip school when they are menstruating because they will usually spoil their uniform. It is estimated that within the four years of high school could lose at the least 156 learning days, which is about 24 weeks of 144 weeks.

In African schools they only teacher the girls about menstruation and tell them to stay home. Many African boys have no idea about menstruation, because they don’t teach them because it is an “embarrassing, private and female only” matter.

On May 28, 2014, the world marked the first Menstrual Hygiene Day, it is to help to break the silence for something that is completely natural, and to help places like Africa for everyone to understand that menstruation is not a thing to stop your life, and that you need clean and new pads and tampons.

A Ugandan based social business made AFRIPADS, they are a washable cloth pad that you can wash and you can use up for a year.  The Ministry of Education and Sports is trying to make sure that there are separate bathrooms for boys and girls, changing rooms they can bathe and change, and have access to clean water, extra pads and pain killers for menstrual pain.


Sources

Biriwasha, Masimba. "In Africa, Menstruation Can Be a Curse." RH Reality Check. 25 Mar. 2008. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2008/03/25/in-africa-menstruation-can-be-a-curse/>.

Lukale, Nelly. "Stand Up Tall and Break the Taboo of Menstruation in Africa."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 May 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nelly-lukale/stand-up-tall-and-break-t_b_5405523.html>.

Taylor, Leonie. "No Pads, No School: Girls' Education Going Down the Toilet."Think Africa Press. Thinkafricapress.com, 27 July 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://thinkafricapress.com/health/girls-education-threatened-lack-sanitary-facilities>.

Female Sexual Violence in African Schools

Africa has one of the highest levels of violence against woman in the world. One of the places that females mainly get attacked are at school. Females are getting harassed by male classmates and teachers. For many girls sexual violence is impossible to avoid for females at school, and it impedes their access to education compared to males students.

Image of Ugandan School girls (source: http://newsofafrica.org/2310.html)

A few quotes:

"I left [school] because I was raped by two guys in my class who were supposedly my friends." -- WH, age thirteen, gang-raped by classmates

"I didn't go back to school for one month after I came forward. Everything reminds me, wearing my school uniform reminds me of what happened. I have dreams. He [the teacher] is in my dreams. He is in the classroom laughing at me. I can hear him laughing at me in my dreams. I sometimes have to pass down the hall where his classroom was. I thought I could see him, still there. I was scared he'll still be there." -- PC, age fifteen, sexually assaulted by teacher at school

"All the touching at school, in class, in the corridors, all day everyday bothers me. Boys touch your bum, your breasts. Some teachers will tell the boys to stop and they may get a warning or detention, but it doesn't work. Other teachers just ignore it. You won't finish your work because they are pestering you the whole time." -- MC, age fourteen, sexually harassed at school


"I can't understand how nobody saw anything or helped my child. The school has caretakers, where were they? I don't feel she is safe at school." -- Mother of LB, a nine-year-old girl gang-raped at school by older classmates



The African government doesn't respond properly or effectively to gendered violence, other organizations have been trying their hardest to let females have the same rights as males in school and in their culture. Girls have encountered sexual violence, such as rape and molestation in school toilets, empty classrooms and hallways, and in hostels and dormitories. Girls that are raped in school are often verbally degraded for it at school, because of this many girls don't tell anyone that they were raped or molested. Girls either start to do poorly in school or just drop out. Some girls even think it's completely normal and that's how men are suppose to treat them, because they have been treated like this since very young.

Some girls in the African school system get pressured by teachers or tutors to have a sexual relationship to get money, or better marks. Or teachers ask girls to come with them because they know that the girls will trust them, shown in the quotation from a 15 year old below.

"I was walking with [a] friend and [the teacher] asked me to come to his room...I thought, he's a teacher, it'll be fine. He gave me a key so that I could get to the boy's hostel [where he lived]. I went to his dorm and walked to the lounge. He gave me a hooch [an alcoholic drink]. I was lame. I knew what was happening to me, but I couldn't move. He picked me up and took me to his room and started taking my clothes off. He took his clothes off. He's twice my size and like five times my weight, and has so many muscles. Then he penetrated me. When I came to, I got up and went to my dorm. My friend said I looked high. I went to bed. Then I just left it. I was scared to tell anyone because I was afraid no one would believe me. I had been raped before and no one
believed me then." She continues onto say what happened when her and her parents try to report the rape, "Me, my mum and my dad went to see the principal and told him what happened. He said he couldn't believe it, and that if it did happen, we must keep it within the school and not tell anyone: the CPU [Child Protection Unit], the board of education. It should be between himself, [the deputy head of school],and us only. My mother said no" -- MC, 15 years old.

Some schools try to respond to the problem of the violence, but more than often school officials conceal that it happened, or delay to act on it. Since this happens many victims are repetitively being harassed or raped/molested. The provincial departments of education and health don't really give the support the victims deserve so organizations from out of country have to come in and help out the victims and try to get them help.


"Scared at School." Human Rights Watch. N.p., 2001. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/safrica/>.

Introductory Post/Female Genital Mutilation

This is my first post on my blog, I will be looking at female issues in Africa. Women across the world are treated unfairly but more so in places that are underdeveloped like Africa.


Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a huge problem in Africa. First, what is female genital mutilation? By the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation is defined as; any procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Importantly, female genital mutilation does not have any health befits to girls and women and it is a violation of the human rights of girls and women. 

Pictured different types of Female Genital Mutilation. 

source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation

Why is female genital mutilation performed on so many females? 

It's performed because in Africa it is a social norm, FGM is usually considered a necessary part of raising a girl properly, so she will not perform any sexual acts until marriage. Female genital mutilation is also performed on females because the clitoris looks like a penis, and is removed to make girls and females seem more feminine and modest. The people performing FMG often believe that there is religious support, even though there is no religious script that prescribes the practice. There are religious leaders that do consider it irrelevant because it has nothing to do with religion and are against it because of peoples belief that female genital mutilation has anything to do with religion.

What are the health risks of female genital mutilation? 

Immediate complications include: 

• extreme pain 
• shock
• bleeding
• tetanus or bacterial infection 
• urine retention
• open sores in the genital region 
• injury to nearby genital tissue.

There are extreme long term complications to female genital mutilation: 

• recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections
• cysts
• infertility
• an increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths 
• the need for later surgeries, if the woman has type III (pictured above) genital mutilation, that seals or narrows a vaginal opening needs to be cut open later to allow for sexual intercourse and childbirth. Most of the time it is stitched again several times, including after childbirth.

Opening and closing procedures, further increasing and repeated both immediate and long-term complications.

What is being done to stop female genital mutilation? 

Since 1997, organizations like WHO and UNICEF have been trying to stop female genital mutilation by strengthening the health care system in Africa, building evidence and knowledge and how to stop female genital mutilation for good.  

Sources/Bibliography 

"Female Genital Mutilation." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 July 2014. Web. 03 Oct. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation>.

"Female Genital Mutilation." WHO. World Health Organization, Feb. 2014. Web. 03 Oct. 2014. <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/>.