and friendships; you learn about your
place in the world. UNESCO states
that ‘ensuring that girls stay in school
is one of the most effective ways of
averting child marriage and early
births.’ And these girls are missing
out on all that because they have a
reproductive system?
I’m not the only one upset by
this. NGO CARE International in
Vanuatu began distributing sanitary
items to ni-Vanuatu women in the
aftermath of 2015’s Cyclone Pam,
and realised it wasn’t just a post-
cyclone problem – it was a monthly
problem. Cyclone Pam passed, but
Aunt Flo wasn’t going anywhere.
With my own monthly visitor in
tow, I visited with CARE to learn
what Australian women can do to
help our sisters-in-uteri.
Remember the first time you got
your period? Imagine you had never
heard anything about it – you just
suddenly starting bleeding. That’s
how most girls in the rural areas of
Vanuatu experience their first period- or sikmun, translation ‘sick moon’.
Florence, 18, admits that her initial
reaction was fear, and tells me that
for many years she was too ashamed
to go to school during her sikmun,
due to cultural taboos surrounding it.
But even if she had, she’d have been
using ripped-up cloth or leaves in
lieu of pads, and would have had no
private toilet to change them.
CARE in Vanuatu’s Menstrual
Hygiene Management project (MHM) - part of their Water, Sanitation and
Hygiene (WASH) program – tackles
these issues head-on. They build girls’
toilets with wash areas, run awareness
sessions to educate girls about their
bodies, and have teamed up with local
organisation Mamma’s Laef to provide
reusable pads and other sanitary items
to girls in school – all with the aim
of keeping them there. Now, Florence
goes to school during her period.
CARE in Vanuatu’s program
director Charlie Damon says the
WASH and MHM projects are about
‘allowing girls in Vanuatu to go to
school with dignity’, and ‘securing
their future as financially independent
women’ in the long run.
The six women who make up
Mamma’s Laef hand-sew 150 fabric
pads every week, and also help run
the awareness sessions. ‘We have to
teach our girls so they know this is
part of life for women,’ says
local mamma Marysa.
‘We want all the girls to
know, they can be president.
They can be what they want
to be,’ adds co-worker Mary.
If we want women to be
truly equal in the eyes of the
world, we need to start with
the foundations of society:
education. And we need to
remove any obstacles in the
way. In some parts of the
world, periods are still an
obstacle. Let’s make sure it doesn’t
stay that way. Because women lift
up other women... and women
begin as girls.
To donate to CARE
Australia’s crowdfunding
campaign, go to
Care.o rg.au/pa d s.LEFT A high
school class-
room. RIGHT
Mamma’s Laef
use diagrams
to educate girls
about their
bodies.The packs include
two pads and
eight liners.Mamma’s Laef do all
their sewing from this
shipping container.ABOVE Kelsey
flew to island
Tanna to visit
schools. LEFT
The girls’ MHM
education starts
in primary
school.THANKS TO VIRGIN AUSTRALIA
COSMOPOLITAN June 2017 15
cosmo cares