Uganda – The 2021 outbreak of violence in the Equatorial region of South Sudan has displaced inside South Sudan, nearly two million people while outside the country there are now over two million South Sudanese refugees, mainly in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda. Many have fears of imminent attack or struggle with food insecurity, sexual reproductive health issues, trauma, and menstrual health among young girls and women. People were forced by over 35,000 to flee to Uganda, roughly 75 percent of refugees from South Sudan are women and children.
Women and girls displaced by conflict face extraordinary hardships in most refugee camps and urban areas of Uganda. Many endure grave risks, including gender-based violence, which can escalate in humanitarian settings. Most are thrust into poverty – cut off from education and life-saving health services, including menstrual health.
Displacement exacts another huge toll on women and girls. In the refugee camps and Uganda’s urban areas, their most intimate and taboo health needs are often overlooked, to devastating effect.
“I had my first period here at the settlement,” said Joyce Tabaria, 12, whose family now lives in the Ayillo II settlement, home to over 39,000 refugees. “I had no idea what was happening. For me, that day was sad and shameful.”
Stigmas surrounding menstruation have existed across cultures in Uganda, also affecting indigenous people and history has it that most people in the community neglect or don’t care about issues of menstrual hygiene. And it’s not uncommon for women and girls to internalize these destructive myths.
A report published by International Rescue Committee (IRC) earlier this year details the extent to which lack of menstrual care, period shame, and misinformation reinforce gender discrimination, rendering women and girls vulnerable to poverty, violence, and harmful practices.
The IRC report reads, “Out of the 79% women and girls that indicate experiencing menstrual pain, only 28% have access to pain killers. While right and adequate menstrual health hygiene (MHH) information are limited. For school girls, a major source of information is schools (61%), peers (45%), workmates (37%), and CSOs/NGOs (27%)”.
In Uganda, the idea that menstruating women and girls are unclean contributes to their exclusion not only from family life but also from education and employment.
Dr. Peter Ibembe, Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) Director of Programs says that in some places, isolation and expulsion from the home can be dangerous, exposing women and girls to extreme weather and sexual violence.
“In others, the onset of menstruation is associated with child marriage, which heightens the risk of adolescent pregnancy and life-threatening complications before, during, and after childbirth” says Dr Ibembe.
According to some vulnerable refugees and displaced people in Uganda, displacement magnifies these conditions.
“When I’m menstruating, I usually use strips of absorbent cloth, but in the settlement, it is difficult to get this cloth,” Hellen Aleyo in Kasese told RHU.
The unmet needs for sexual and reproductive health services intensify for women and girls in exile. Refugees need to receive adequate care and access to dignity kits in the settlements.
Harmful conditions in evacuation sites can wreak havoc on women’s sexual and reproductive health, while lack of access to hygiene supplies limits their mobility and heightens their vulnerability to sexual violence. Girls who do not have the ability to manage their menstrual health are also at greater risk of missing school or dropping out entirely.
Hellen Furaha, is the recipient of one of the sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), menstrual health training, and dignity kits distributed to women and girls in the Muhookya internally displaced people’s settlement in the Kasese district. The kits contain essential hygiene items such as sanitary pads, underclothes, soap, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.
As we celebrate menstrual health month 2022, it is important to note that RHU works with partners SRHR Alliance with support from Rutgers to deliver dignity kits to women and girls around Uganda in schools and in women’s and girls’ safe spaces. These safe spaces provide more than sexual and reproductive health services.
Aldon Walukamba G, the author, is the RHU Media Advocacy and Documentation Coordinator.
