Photo by Joni Kabana
The phrase “first-world problems” has become a wry, rueful reminder of how lucky we are. And at first glance, the work of Dignity Period drives that comparison home. A partnership between a not-for-profit in St. Louis and a university and factory in Ethiopia, Dignity erases stigma and misinformation about menstruation and makes sure girls have truly sanitary protection, so they can go on with their lives.
But now that it’s up and running in Ethiopia, board members have realized there’s a need here in St. Louis as well. (More on that later.)
Photo by Joni Kabana
The idea began several years ago, when a St. Louis couple spent eight months in Ethiopia.
Dr. Lewis Wall is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University—but he’s also a professor of sociocultural anthropology and a medical ethicist. He received a Fulbright Hays fellowship to teach at Ethiopia’s Mekelle University.
While there, he and his wife, Helen Wall, got to know an Ethiopian woman who ran the Mariam Seba Sanitary Products Factory.
That was relevant, because Wall knew that menstruation was still a taboo in Ethiopia—and a major reason that the school dropout rate for girls was over 50 percent.
Girls couldn’t afford sanitary protection, so they used old rags. Often they stayed home from school because they were bleeding. Gradually, they fell behind in their classes.
Photo by Joni Kabana
In Amharic, the phrase for menstruation is yewor abeba, meaning ‘monthly flower.’ In Tigrigna, it’s nay adetatna, “belonging to our mothers.” But the poetry ends there. In a recent study of 428 household members, four of the 79 male participants had no idea why menstruation occurs; one thought it was to remove bodily waste. Nineteen females had no idea why menstruation occurs; one attributed it to “pain in the backbone occurring when one becomes an adult.” Only 12 females could offer a plausible biological explanation. Asked the physiological cause of the bleeding, one man said “burdens or stresses of daily life.” Another said women menstruated when they were “afraid of something”; two other males believed that the blood arose metaphysically in the woman’s mind or soul. Sixty-six females had no idea why they menstruated; one thought it was from consuming too many sweet drinks, and another said it was a result of sexual desire. More than one-fifth of the men (and 11 percent of the women) believed menstruating girls should not attend school.
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Photo by Joni Kabana
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Photo by Joni Kabana
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Photo by Joni Kabana
“Approximately 85% of the population of Ethiopia lives in rural areas, and many girls are too poor even to afford underwear, much less commercially-produced disposable menstrual pads,” notes Dr. Wall. “In addition to carrying out detailed ethnographic research on menstrual beliefs, attitudes and practices in northern Ethiopia, The Menstrual Dignity Project will provide low-cost, re-usable, environmentally-friendly, locally-produced menstrual pads and underwear to the girls and women of Ethiopia, improving the quality of their lives while removing barriers to their education and social advancement.”
Dignity Period does an education program for both boys and girls, age 9 through the teens.
Boys are important allies; their understanding can make a strong difference. Girls receive a kit with four reusable pads and two pair of underwear.
Photo by Joni Kabana
The idea of using grass or old rags to absorb menstrual flow does sound like a foreign, faraway problem—but it’s not.
Many women in St. Louis can’t afford fancily marketed, pricey sanitary supplies every month, either.
Realizing the need among women with low or zero income, Dignity Period is now working with Cotton Babies and the Alliance for Period Supplies—spearheaded by the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank—to provide reusable pad kits for women here at home, too.
Photo by Joni Kabana
Photo by Joni Kabana
