Over 60 percent of school going girls in Africa start their menstruation period without an idea what is happening to them.
An additional 60 percent live in communities where discussions about menstruation is still a taboo with the information they receive being selective.
This findings were released by United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in partnership with sanitary product maker Procter & Gamble (P&G) who launched a set of guidelines for puberty education.
The guidelines aim to provide developing countries with a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum that will provide both girls and boys better puberty knowledge and skills.
“Puberty should not be taught in isolation, rather it should be delivered through and developmentally appropriate skill-based health education curriculum framework that starts as early as age five and continues into young adulthood,” said UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education Qian Tang.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology over 2. 6 million girls require support to obtain menstrual hygiene materials. In addition, owing to the cultural practices particularly in arid and semi-arid areas some 300,000 girls require both sanitary towels and underwear at an estimated cost of 2.6 billion Kenyan shillings.
The report, dubbed “UNESCO series of Good Policy and Practice in Health Education” seeks to address Puberty Education and Menstrual Hygiene Management providing a comprehensive curriculum that can be adopted by schools to address and improve puberty education.
The report recommends that puberty education be delivered in sequenced lessons from pre-adolescence to young adulthood employing learner centered methods to develop knowledge, attitude, values and skills needed to adopt healthy, safe practices during the transition to adulthood.
P&G’s Communications Manager Irene Mwathi-Miheso said that keeping girls in school through puberty education is a great motivator in showing them the value of pursuing an education.
“Educating girls about puberty and menstruation before the onset of puberty equips the girls and helps them to better prepared as and when they begin expeirncing these bodily changes- this is not a nice to have but a necessity.,” said Ms Miheso.
Through the Always keeping girls in school program which was initiated in 2006, P&G has managed to provide vulnerable, adolescent girls with puberty education and product (sanitary towels and under panties) needed to successfully manage their periods. The program which initially begun with 15,000 girls in 2006 had reached 85,000 girls in May of 2013 with an aim of reaching a further 10,000 girls by December 2014.
