Gender Equality Mozambique Project #44872

Menstrual kits to 1500 Mozambican schoolgirls

Project Report | Nov 26, 2021
Improving menstrual health and combating violence

By Roberta Pellizzoli | Project Leader

We publish this update on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as we want to collectively reflect on the link between improving menstrual health and combating violence against women.

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations; however, it remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it. Violence against women and girls can be physical, sexual and psychological, and includes intimate partner violence; sexual violence and harassment; human trafficking; female genital mutilation; and child marriage.

In rural Mozambique, girls’ puberty often coincides with leaving school, as parents fear that they might be at risk of sexual harassment and of engaging in relationships with boys that might not be interested or capable of providing for them (meaning, paying the bridewealth) in case they become pregnant. At the same time, when girls start menstruating they are married off by their parents, as they are deemed to be ready to start a family of their own.

There are many others correlations between needs linked to menstrual management and gender-based violence – not only in Mozambique: increased risk of sexual assault and harassment if using outside toilets at night (for example, in rural areas or in humanitarian settings such as resettlement sites) due to stigma; resorting to transactional sex to buy sanitary pads; harassment by male peers in school.

Providing girls with sanitary pads and information on menstrual hygiene management therefore means much more than addressing period poverty, as it contributes also to increase awareness on girls rights and on sexual and reproductive health. But to reach an impact, it is not only girls who need to be made more aware. In these weeks, our team in Gorongosa is busy training School Councils in 5 communities where Helpcode is building schools with the support of UNICEF and the European Union.

These trainings also include Menstrual Hygiene Management (as well as small workshops to teach how to sew reusable sanitary pads) and they are aimed at representatives of parents, teachers, students and community leaders: the idea is to try and normalize the discussion around these issues, promote a debate and engage also men and boys as critical agents of change.

So your support goes a long way: thank you!

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Jul 27, 2021
Growing Awareness on Menstrual Hygiene - Gorongosa

By Roberta Pellizzoli | Project leader

Mar 26, 2021
Call to action to ensure girls'rights to education

By Roberta Pellizzoli | Project leader

After one year of closure, schools have reopened in Mozambique on March 22. It is still too early to say if the risks highlighted in our previous report have materialized, and it will take a few weeks before quantitative data on children’s school enrolment – to be compared with previous years’ – are available. It is still too early also for qualitative evidence on the impact of the emergency measures taken to contain the pandemic on school attendance, learning outcomes, children’s capacity to focus during classes, their nutritional status.

It is not too early, though, to say that girls’ rights to education, in Mozambique, are in danger, as a result of a mix of factors such as the pandemic’ consequences, multidimensional poverty, discriminatory social and traditional norms that promote early marriages – including as a coping strategy for families whose livelihoods are vulnerable.

Helpcode is promoting girls’ rights to education in many ways: by providing them with schools materials, by organizing community dialogues to increase awareness on the importance of education and on girls’ and children’s rights, by supporting the preparation of school meals – a great incentive for families to send children to school -, by enhancing families’ agricultural production capacity so that their income and livelihoods are more stable and therefore do not need to marry their daughters, by building or rehabilitating schools and latrines in areas that have been affected by natural disasters.

Menstrual health is a frequently overlooked factor: but in fact, it is as important as having school materials. We know, in fact, that puberty is a critical time for girls in Mozambique, as in many other parts of the world, as once they reach puberty, particularly in rural areas, they are often retired from school, and left waiting to be married. Providing girls with sanitary pads and with culturally-sensitive training on how to manage their period and their reproductive health can be a game-changer for thousands of girls living in rural Mozambique.

So this is a call to action: we need your support to change the rules of the game so that girls can go to school and make informed, conscious decision over their lives. Obrigada :)

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