Rural Nepal suffers with significant deprivation and lack of basic provisions such as healthcare, sanitation, adequate nutrition and education. The majority of the population in the Himalayan regions works as subsistence farmers in the low yielding high altitude fields. Despite long hours of toil, the crops are not sufficient to sustain their families and certainly not enough to exchange the produce for more luxury items such as soap or other sanitary products. This problem affects negatively everyone but especially the female part of the population which struggles to keep clean during menstruation.
In Nepal, there is a strong taboo attached to menstruation, based around the persistent idea—rooted in religion—that menstruation “pollutes.” The practice of chhaupadi (“seclusion”) during a woman’s menstrual cycle persists despite nominal illegality. The practice involves the sequestering of women in sheds separate from their house. It is believed they will otherwise bring their family bad luck, or ill health. The tradition begins with an adolescent girl’s first menstrual cycle, during which she remains in the shed for up to fourteen days; afterwards, she must spend the duration of each monthly period in the shed, until she reaches menopause. Due to lack of sanitary items women either do not use anything at all or dirty rags during menstruation. This commonly can lead to infections or even deaths.
Our project in the Ghorka region of Nepal is aiming to tackle all of these issues. We are planning to provide reusable sanitary wear to all women living in 6 villages at high altitude: Bhi, Serang, Gyaul, Chak, Kwak and Prok.
We are also going to organise educational meetings in all of these villages, with the support of the local nurses, to raise health awareness, provide information about the hygiene and supply soap to aid achieving this particular goal; to teach about the physiology of the menstrual cycle and contraception as well as aiming to abolish deeply rooted taboos related to menstruation.
This is an incredibly important intervention which hopefully will start a new chapter in the lives of many women in the region. We are looking forward to following the progress and outcomes over the forthcoming years.
