Change HerStory
How do you tell the story of a menstrual hygiene project in Ghana?
When the International Projects Committee of the Rotary Club of Madison chose its international project in 2018, we knew we had to create messaging that would reduce “discomfort” about the project. After all, who wants to talk about menstrual hygiene at lunch...or maybe at all.
The committee was thrilled to be partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new 4W (Women and Wellbeing in Wisconsin and the World) initiative. The goal was to provide a junior high school curriculum to teach adolescent girls and boys about reproduction & menstruation, dispel myths and provide menstrual hygiene “kits” to female students that they could use when they got their period. Over three years, we would work with seven US Rotary clubs, 3 Ghanaian Rotary Clubs, 8 districts and 188 schools and an in-country partner, Days for Girls (an international NGO that advances menstrual equity, health, dignity and opportunity for all) to reach more than 25,000 girls, boys and their families and distribute more than 17,500 kits.
Back to the “discomfort”. Even in our club of smart professionals in Madison, WI, when we started to tell the story, folks would cringe a little and be visibly uncomfortable. So, what do we do? Who do we find to tell the story and what story do we tell?
The answer to who would tell the story? Gray-haired guys, of course. When we proposed this strategy to our committee members, the guys got it. And we were on our way. The first time Committee co-chair, Mike Casey, stood at the podium to introduce the project and ask for contributions, he joked, “You are probably wondering why I’m here talking about menstruation.”
There was a noticeable gasp from the group, a pause and then a room filled with laughter. We had broken the ice and were on our way. Our guys led the way in providing information and asking for donations. Mike Casey recalls, “It was certainly different asking for donations on a project that was not building a bridge or drilling a well. But we were proud to be stepping out in a new direction.”
The committee, after examining the benefits of the proposal, began the lengthy and somewhat circuitous process of applying for a Global Grant. With the help of former DG and Club President, Rob Stroud, we waded through the district process and the application from RI Foundation. We found a changing set of rules and leaders created one “oops” after another.
We searched for a Ghanaian Rotary Club partner. I remember our first video meeting with the club in Tema-Meridian. We were pleased to see women in leadership roles in the club eager to help.
But communication and cooperation with our first club was not so successful. The Club did identify a school district to work in and connected us with the Ghana Education Services Girl Child Coordinator who was essential in getting into the schools. We worked with the Days for Girls manager and plowed forward.
In the meantime, we encountered delays and questions from both the District and the Foundation. In our enthusiasm, we had not followed the normal path. In retrospect, we also realized that the rules were changing during the process. Nonetheless, we moved on, making changes as needed. I remember a drive to Evanston to talk with our project manager at the Foundation. We worked on what would be an acceptable relationship with the University. Not partners, not consultants...contractors. OK.
Meanwhile, committee members created marketing materials for our fundraising visits to other clubs. How can we frame this project in a way that has meaning for everyone? When girls stay in school, their contribution to the economy in their community and country increases substantially. Girls graduating from school result in higher incomes for them and for their country. There are fewer teen pregnancies, early marriages and rapes/incest. And educated girls became women of influence in their communities, making life better for themselves and their children.
One wonderful side light was the involvement of the Interact Clubs at two Madison high schools. Mary Crave returned from Ghana with a box of colorful Ghanaian beads. The students pounced on the project and made bracelets from the beads and sold them to raise $1500+. Their involvement was a wonderful contribution to our efforts and built enthusiasm for the project. Students helping students was a winning plan.
Club members traveled to Ghana on three occasions to help and to observe. Our interactions with the local leaders, Rotarians and Days for Girls, gave us an appreciation for the difficulty of the project work being done and the environment in which they were working. I remember vividly the horrible conditions in the “bathrooms” in the schools. And the lack of clean water everywhere.
And it was amazing to observe the determination of these young people to succeed in school despite the conditions and limitations, particularly for young women. In our visit to a school where the children of our local guide “Papa” attended, I toured the homes of two young women who showed me around. Poverty has an ugly face. At the end of our tour, I gave each girl $20. Grateful, they would use that money to pay their high school expenses. Without it, they would not be able to get further education. One girl told me she wanted to be a doctor and the other a teacher. I hope they achieve their dreams. It’s an uphill battle. That visit and exchange put the whole project in perspective for me.
With expert guidance from our 4W Project Manager, Mary Crave, we tweaked the project plan in year two, including involving more schools in lower-income communities and better management of the in-school learning. We worked with Koforidua-New Juaben Rotary Club and 4-H Ghana. They helped identify the schools most in need and still accessible by car. This helped us implement the project more efficiently.
Days for Girls leadership revised the materials for the in-school education and ramped up production of the backpacks filled with menstrual hygiene supplies. They were thrilled to purchase a fast surger to more quickly sew up the kits made from Ghanaian fabric. The number of students we reached was way over the goal and there were more schools than we could accommodate who wanted the training and kits for their students.
We also sought a partnership with the Rotary Club of Winneba that resulted in amazing work in our 3rd year. Some members in the Rotary Club of Winneba had relationships with leaders in the Ghana Education Service and opened doors for us, much like 4-H Ghana did in Year 2. Together, we organized training sessions for 90 local School Health Education (SHEP) coordinators as well as community health nurses and Ghana Education Services reps in 4 districts. Days for Girls and Mary Crave developed additional training materials including board games and colorful training visuals and participatory lesson plans for teachers to use throughout the year. Rather than Days for Girls presenting a 2-hour lesson, giving out the kits, and leaving, the SHEP coordinators had the tools and knowledge to train students over the entire school year to reinforce learning and provide on-going support to the students.
With our support, Days for Girls delivered washstands and hand-washing supplies to 90 schools to support both this project and COVID-19 recommendations. And kits were distributed in the schools together with training for 8,000 young women and their male counterparts in grades 7-9.
In all, we taught more than 25,000 girls and their male classmates in health, menstrual hygiene, myths and beliefs and we distributed more than 17,500 menstrual hygiene kits in 3 regions of Ghana in the three years of the project. This would not have been possible with the cooperation of our 4W partners at UW- Madison and the expertise of Mary Crave, our project manager. The involvement of non-Rotary experts was a controversial decision from the perspective of the RI Foundation. We do not believe that this project could have been successful without her expertise.
In review, we regret not involving several more Ghanaian Rotary Clubs with resources and their commitment from the very start. Evaluations of the project indicate that the young people appreciated the backpacks and education. Rural young women were more likely to use the reusable pads in the kits than those in the city where disposable pads are available. COVID-19 disrupted our 3rd year efforts, so some of the schedules were condensed and it was impossible to measure if the materials and kits influenced school attendance.
Evaluation in years 1 and 2 indicate that girls did feel more at ease going to school while menstruating. Girls appreciated the kit and many used it. Although they didn’t like washing the pads after use.
Menstrual hygiene kits are not a panacea for girls’ school attendance and girls still struggle with the other barriers such as demands at home, menstrual cramps, stigma, lack of safe and clean places to change their pads at school.
In the long run, thousands of young people received body literacy training, myths were dispelled, more young women will continue their education and be able to make a living for their families.
We learned from year to year and were able to make changes in years 2 and 3 that created better and more sustained education in the schools. This was an advantage of applying for 3 1-year grants rather than 1 3-year grant.
So what about those grey-haired Rotarians? Well, we all got a few more grey hairs while doing this project and particularly in finalizing the project report with the clubs in Ghana and with RI. I hope that new RI guidelines and procedures will allow more US clubs to get engaged with Rotary clubs and projects in other parts of the world where the need is great.
All of us received an amazing education in working on this project in Ghana. Those of us lucky to travel there to participate and engage with these young people will never forget our experiences.
Our hope is that someday some of these empowered young women will be great leaders in their communities and their country. They will remember Rotary, the gray-haired Rotarians they met and those backpacks.
Linda Baldwin O’Hern
Rotary Club of Madison