Breaking the Next Taboo:
Menstrual Hygiene within CLTS

Sharon Roose and Tom Rankin, Plan International and Sue Cavill, Independent Consultant

Introduction:
Most adolescent girls and women menstruate. This means that for five to seven days each month they bleed through their vagina. This monthly bleeding is often accompanied by abdominal cramps, headaches, mood changes and general lethargy all of which can be exacerbated by social stigma, myths and a lack of requisite infrastructure to manage menstruation safely, privately and hygienically. The accumulated impact of these issues have significant implications for women and girls and the potential to limit their opportunity for education, equality, income generation and societal participation, all of which hamper self-worth and confidence.

This edition of Frontiers of CLTS illustrates how CLTS programmes can be expanded to address menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in schools and communities to alleviate these stresses on women and girls.

Its specific objectives are to:

• Increase the awareness of policy-makers and practitioners on MHM.
• Engender change by highlighting the synergies between MHM and CLTS programmes. •
• Share examples of how MHM interventions have been incorporated into CLTS and School-Led Total Sanitation (SLTS) programmes, drawing on the innovations and experiences of several organisations.
• Summarise what can be done to improve MHM through CLTS programmes.

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