19 December 2008

Once a Month Campaign Helps African Girls Stay in School

Springing from one woman’s concern, a campaign provides sanitary pads

African girls like these get the help they need to stay in school thanks to a campaign that provides feminine-hygiene products.

By Caitlin Bergin
Staff Writer

Washington — For thousands of girls in Africa, the onset of puberty means staying home from school for days at a time.

African adolescent girls often have to choose between the humiliation of managing menstrual periods with no resources at school or the interruption of learning because they stay home during their periods. In this context, a supply of simple sanitary pads can make a life-changing difference. The pads enable girls to attend class regularly, keep up in school and reach greater educational opportunity.

When Nicole Peacock, a public affairs specialist at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, heard that lack of access to sanitary pads was a barrier to girls’ education, she decided to do something about it. Joined by American and African colleagues from the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, she created the “Once a Month” campaign in May to provide sanitary pads to girls across Zambia so the girls would not have to miss classes every month.

In the United States, Peacock solicits pads from donors and ships them to the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, where colleagues distribute them to charities working with adolescent girls in school. Their goal is simple: get pads to girls so that they can excel in school with dignity and confidence.

This simple solution is making a difference. As a senior girl at Kamulanga High School explained, “Before, if you had no money to buy pads and you had an emergency here at school, you had no choice but to go home. These pads will make us feel safe, even when we are in class with boys. We will not need to go back home for fear of messing our uniforms.”

Peacock first learned of the problem at a meeting in which a Zambian educator explained that girls were missing school at least a week out of every month.

CONNECTING AMERICANS AND AFRICANS

“This is basically about partnering with Americans and connecting them with Africans on a very small scale and in a way that makes sense,” Peacock told America.gov.

Zonta International of New Jersey’s Karen Nicodemus and her daughter, Amy, with a donation of feminine-hygiene products

Peacock opened a dialogue with representatives of the Procter & Gamble (P&G) company, and that spurred the company to develop an initiative to help girls in another African country. P&G provides money directly to South African girls so they can buy feminine-hygiene supplies and not have to miss classes.

Meanwhile, Peacock began inviting people she knew in the United States to make contributions toward her own grass-roots campaign, which focuses on girls in Zambia. “One colleague told her mother, who was a member of a professional women's club, Zonta International. The group’s response was overwhelming,” Peacock said. Once a Month also receives donations from a black professional women’s organization called The Links.

Peacock sends the sanitary supplies to embassy colleagues in Zambia, who distribute them to The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) and the Forum for African Women Educationalists of Zambia (FAWEZA). The organizations get the pads into schools.

Daphne Chimuka of FAWEZA and Barbara Chilangwa of CAMFED identified many economic and social factors that combine to make the simple act of going to school while menstruating a tremendous challenge for Zambian girls.

The poverty level in Zambia, Chilangwa said, is high. Household budgets place priority on food; girls’ menstrual needs are not considered. Typically, girls are expected to wash and reuse cloths. But since most girls have no school bags, carrying used pieces of cloth to and from school is cumbersome and can be embarrassing. Chilangwa said most schools have limited sanitary facilities and no water, which makes cleaning up between classes during menstrual periods difficult.

FIGHTING THE STIGMA

Both Chimuka and Chilangwa said menstruation can be a stigma in the Zambian culture. The first period comes as a shock because of the secrecy associated with it, they said, adding that sexual education does not occur in homes or schools.

Adding to the stigma, Chimuka said, is “the low value placed on girls’ education versus the high value placed on motherhood.” She said customary law uses puberty as the indicator of adulthood, and the announcement of menarche, whether by words or show of blood, is a reason girls drop out of school.

“The pads are a great help to such children because they become assured of uninterrupted school attendance and also [are] relieved that they would not … suffer the humiliation of everyone knowing they are having their periods,” Chimuka said.

By supplying sanitary pads, Once a Month and a handful of small programs like it offer girls opportunity. As a 17-year-old from Kamulanga High School explained, “I am happy knowing that we girls have been given materials. ... I am truly grateful.”

For more information on nonprofits helping Zambian girls, see the Web sites of The Campaign for Female Education and the Forum for African Women Educationalists of Zambia.