“Do you know what this is?”
Esther Sevilla is holding something colorful in her hand. She raises her arm, showing it to a group of students standing in a circle outside the classroom block.
“Yes!” the students shout in unison.
The muddy ground under everyone’s sandals and dusty shoes is slowly drying after the morning rain. A little boy in gray shorts and a purple shirt, the school uniform here at Kotome Primary School, raises his hand:
“It’s a sanitary pad!”
He steps into the middle of the circle and receives the pad from Esther, picking up a pair of pink panties from a table. He demonstrates how to attach the pad, amid giggles and embarrassed laughs from the other students.
Today, menstruation is on the schedule at this schoolyard in Kapoeta, a small town in eastern South Sudan. This lesson is part of a larger initiative to encourage more girls to attend school. Sanitary pads cost money. When families can’t even afford food, daughters will be left without menstrual hygiene products and will miss school up to a week each month.
A volunteer for the South Sudan Red Cross in Kapoeta, Esther Sevilla displays a white cloth bag with the Red Cross emblem, and soon the girls line up to receive one each.
“These bags contain pads and panties, but also a flashlight, towel, and clothesline. Washing the pads is important to stay healthy,” she explains.
The approach to menstrual hygiene is holistic and includes provision of adequate clean water for washing, drinking and household use.
Photo: Tomas Ärlemo
‘Now I can talk’
The approach is holistic, going well beyond access to sanitary pads. It’s also about ensuring there is adequate clean water for washing, drinking and household use, and about making sure the entire community in included. The project is just one example that highlights ways in which Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies are putting the theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day 2024 — Together for a #PeriodFriendlyWorld — into action on a local level every day.
The boys in the school also receive soap, for example, as it’s important that they feel seen and included as well. Clean water and better latrines are other projects that have been implemented here and in five other schools in town. At neighboring Kuleo Light School, teacher Tonny Okello explains the benefits of the initiative, not just for the girls' education.
“We will improve the well and replace the diesel generator with solar panels,” he says. “The generator often breaks down, leaving us without water. There will be a tap here in the schoolyard and one outside the fence for the community to use.”
Sixteen-year-old Lona Mude is pleased by these improvements.
“Now I can talk to my friends about menstruation; it’s not strange,” she says. “The boys know more and do not harass us. Before, I stayed home three or four days each month. I was worried that people would notice that I had my period and laugh at me.”
Only one third of the girls in South Sudan fulfil basic education. Here in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for girls, violence against women is widespread, and half of the young girls are married off before their 18th birthday.
Talking about menstruation can be embarassing because of cultural taboos and sometimes, humor and laughter can help people break through their discomfort. Here, a female student laughs along with classmates as she takes part in the demonstration.
Photo: Tomas Ärlemo
‘Now I feel free’
This cooperation between the South Sudan and Swedish Red Cross Societies (and with support from the Swedish Postcode Lottery) has reached nearly 10 000 students, parents and community members during the last three years.
In villages around Kapoeta, volunteers hold meetings to discuss the importance of girls' education and the dangers of child marriage. They provide information on good hygiene in areas where clean water is scarce and on violence against women and available support.
The South Sudan Red Cross works in many ways to improve people’s lives. The world’s youngest country, formed in 2011 after the separation from Sudan, struggles with the consequences of many years of violence and conflict, climate disasters, poverty, and hunger. Emergency aid is provided for survival, alongside long-term efforts like in Kapoeta – striving for change and a future for South Sudan’s boys and girls.
And change is happening. More girls can attend school every day of the month, like 13-year-old Jessica Lokidor.
“Before I stayed home when I had my period, up to a week,” says Lokidor. “Now I feel free; I can go to school every day. For me and other girls here, school is important. We gain knowledge to share with others. We shouldn’t have to be married off. I want to become a doctor and help people in need.”
Text by Anna Lithander