Tamara  Khumalo

Support our SAFE PAD and menstrual hygiene awareness project.

Adolescent pregnancy, occurring in
girls aged 10–19 years, remains a serious health and social problem in Tembisa South
Africa , and has been associated with numerous risk factors evident in the
young people's family, peer, school, and in neighbourhood contexts.
Nobody deserves the indignity of having to use
leaves, newspapers, used socks, old mattress cuttings or rags to clean her
menstrual flow. These materials are not only ineffective but also unhygienic
and uncomfortable in cleaning menstrual flow. In Tembisa, school going girls of
menstrual age are either forced to endure this humiliation or be absent from
school. For the brave girls who want to remain in school and build a bright
future,&nbsp; a large number of them confess
to facing stigma that comes from unhygienic menstrual hygiene management, the
odor of improperly managed menstrual blood or shocking stories of how they did
not know what to do during their first menstrual period. As for those who choose the easy way out, research has uncovered shocking
statistics of adolescent young girls missing school in Tembisa due to
menstruation. Moreover, this state of affairs is worsened by the lack of
information on menstrual matters as well as a deep culture of taboos, myths and
misconceptions surrounding menstruation and menstrual blood. At JROMSA, we
believe that young girls should not be left alone to make these tough choices.