Train 100 men & 40 boys in Uganda on menstruation

The schools officially opened in January 2022 in Uganda after a very long lockdown (2020-2021) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In our efforts to ensure girls go back to school and are supported by the boys and men especially to handle their period, African Child and Youth Development Initiative (ACYDI)-Uganda carried out a community sensitisation session to mobilise stakeholders on the subject matter.

Through community drama, a team of trained members of the community elaborated how poor menstrual health/hygiene management affects the girls' education and women's productivity in the community and how each of the stakeholder can support to improve the same.

This took place in Namatooke village in Buwooya subcounty which is mostly affected by traditional cultural and religious beliefs. Many people (120, i.e 80F:40M) attended and these included the muslim clarics, the cultual leaders and the Anglican church head of leity. They were requested to include menstrual health support during their church and mosque prayer service sessions so that everyone gets to understand their roles and responsibilities hence promoting education for girls and productivity for the women.

Challenges

1. The culture is still so strong and considers menstruation a taboo that should be a responsibility of women to handle with the girls. This was so manifested during this meeting where men expressed concern of why they would be invited in a meeting to talk about such issues.

2. Consistent migrations by the fishing community which makes everyone careless about the girls and their issues menstruation inclussive.