SUSTAINABLE MENSTRUAL HYGIENE FOR YOUNG GIRLS IN CAMEROON

Within rural and urban communities in Cameroon today, many adolescent girls and young women experience menstrual poverty to an extent that they make use of grass and leaves as sanitary pads. Due to this, these young girls suffer from discrimination, shaming and many diseases, miss school when they have their period because of the taboo and stigma surrounding menstruation. Bridgers Association identified a lack of knowledge with regards to menstrual hygiene management, menstruation in general, as well as a lack of financial means to buy sanitary pads.

Bridgers Association is a registered Non-Profit Organization based in Yaounde, Cameroon. Founded in 2013 with the mission to empower vulnerable women/girls to create an environment in which both men and women enjoy equity, contribute and benefit as equal partners without any barriers. I, Sina from Germany, will be joining the rest of the Bridgers Association Team in Cameroon for the implementation of this project during the coming weeks.

We have designed this project that targets the issues surrounding the topic of menstruation with two main strategies:

1) Educating young girls on the dignity and great power of menstruation as such, and menstrual hygiene in particular;

2) The distribution of reusable PERIOD PANTIES from a goodwill donation by the German company FEMTIS, which last many years and are environmentally friendly. These underwears will empower girls to freely go about their daily activities while menstruating without any fear of messing up themselves or contracting diseases. The education aspect will provide girls, as well as the other members of the community with knowledge about menstruation and proper menstrual hygiene management thus, empowering the girls.

No girl shall be ashamed of their menstruation anymore!

For the realization of this project we urgently need financial means, to buy soap and detergent for the beneficiary girls as symbol of hygiene to keep their menstrual kits clean; transportation to assist volunteers to the rural communities, motivate resource persons to handle the education aspects of this project, as well as acquire face masks and hand sanitizers/hand washing stations against Coronavirus.

Please DONATE and help us fight menstrual poverty, stigma and gender-based inequalities!