By the end of this year, all B.C. schools will have to provide free menstrual tampons and pads for students.
The announcement begins to end a prejudice that seems to have been around as long as civilization. The Bible, an authority for three world religions, considers menstruating women unclean. They must be segregated. Anita Diamant built that exclusion into her best-selling book, 鈥淭he Red Tent.鈥
Half of human population have, or have had, menstrual periods. Yet it remains a taboo subject.
TV ads for feminine hygiene products never show blood. Based on advertising, you鈥檇 think women bled blue.
Although most schools do make pads and tampons available for emergencies, 鈥渕any young women feel awkward asking for menstrual products at a school office,鈥 said Rebecca Ballard, a Grade 11 student in the New Westminster school district. She called the government decision 鈥減rogress towards eliminating the taboo nature of menstruation. This is something all young women go through and should never feel bad about.鈥
New Westminster was the first district to endorse free feminine hygiene products in washrooms. Their approval, said chair Mark Gifford, 鈥渞eflects some of the stigma around periods and menstruation.鈥
And if that鈥檚 the situation in Canada, imagine what it must be like in more traditional countries like Uganda.
Erika van Oyen went to Uganda in 2008 as a volunteer. She quickly realized that many girls got short-changed on their education. Unable to afford disposable sanitary supplies 鈥 indeed, often unable even to afford underpants 鈥 they missed a week of schooling every month.
鈥淏efore we started this program,鈥 van Oyen says, 鈥渟chools taught about women鈥檚 biology, about menstrual cycles. But, a girl in her period is ridiculed. Teased if she soils her clothes. Humiliated. So they stay away. They fall behind in their classes, and eventually they drop out.鈥
The same happens in Canada, to a lesser extent.
Van Oyen鈥檚 solution was pads that could be used, washed, and used again. She started making menstrual kits based on the 鈥淒ays for Girls鈥 model: eight pads, two shields, two pairs of underpants, two Ziploc bags and a facecloth. Four of the pads are made in Uganda, by local people, using local materials. Four are sewn in Canada, along with the panty liners, because the special waterproof fabric is not available in Uganda.
Van Oyen and her mother have organized sewing bees here in Kelowna. Up to 35 women and men meet monthly to make up pads and liners.
The Kelowna group has been busy all winter.
鈥淲e have almost 1,500 kits ready now, and I hope to have 2,000 to take with me this summer,鈥 says van Oyen.
Over the last 10 years, she has distributed kits to about 6,000 girls.
That鈥檚 an infinitesimal fraction of Uganda鈥檚 25 million female population. But it鈥檚 having an effect. Wherever van Oyen has led sessions, school absenteeism is down. 鈥淭he girls are using the kits,鈥 van Oyen says. 鈥淪ome share their kits with girls who were not able to come to our training sessions.鈥
She and her volunteers 鈥 who all pay their own way 鈥 do a lot of teaching. Uganda has rescinded its former ban on sexual education, but there is still no program to teach teachers how to teach students about their maturing bodies.
鈥淎 large part of our work is education to prevent pregnancies,鈥 says van Oyen.
鈥淪o we teach women how to know when they are fertile. We promote abstinence first 鈥 providing menstrual supplies and sex education is not promoting sex. But, if it鈥檚 going to happen, we want it to be safe sex, in a healthy relationship.
鈥淭hat means learning what consent means. No means no. Girls need to know that they can say no. Even to adult men, in a male-dominant society.
鈥淚f they鈥檙e going to say no, they need to say it loud and strong. And men and boys need to learn that only yes means yes. Corey (Erika鈥檚 husband) talks with the boys about why they get horny, and why it鈥檚 still wrong to force sex on a girl.
鈥淐onsent is not just the absence of no.鈥
In modern Africa, van Oyen adds, women do all the work. They fetch the water. They do the cooking and cleaning. They look after the children. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 important for girls to learn that they can be in control of their lives.鈥
To raise funds for continuing this work this summer in Uganda, van Oyen’s charitable foundation ISEE International (iseesolutions.org) is currently fund raising. For more information, write: erika@iseesolutions.org
Jim Taylor is an Okanagan Centre author and freelance journalist. He can be reached at rewrite@shaw.ca. This is a regular column in Okanagan Weekend.