CAMEROON: My Period Story Will Change Perceptions

In honor of World Menstrual Hygiene Day, Regina Afanwi Young shares how we can break taboos around menstruation and support girls with the resources they need. 

“Our collective responsibility is to make sure that young girls have the right information about their bodies and safe spaces to address their concerns before their first periods.”

Regina Afanwi Young

Talking about menstruation has always been a difficult task in my community. Most women were never educated about menstruation and do not feel comfortable passing on knowledge to their girl children. Girls who start menstruation at the age of 10 try hiding it from their parents by using tissues and pieces of cloth to pad themselves. If girls happen to soil themselves in school, they become an object of mockery, gossip, and even isolation. 

In most households, it is the mother’s responsibility to provide menstrual hygiene kits to girls. Many of these mothers are not allowed to work outside the home and struggle to provide these kits. Imagine raising an all-girl household; mothers sometimes pray their children do not grow up to menstruation age, as buying sanitary pads is such a financial burden.

When I was a child, the only knowledge I had of menstruation was what little my teacher shared in school. Even she was too shy to handle the topic or even pronounce the word “menstruation.” She used different names to refer to it, such as “flower,” “your time,” and “month end,” to name a few. 

The teacher repeated so many harmful myths and taboos about menstruation. In a firm voice, she would warn us not to play or get too close to a boy, or else we would get pregnant. She encouraged girls to stay away from school until they stopped menstruating. I even remember her telling us to avoid the kitchen to help prepare food while menstruating, as if we would make the food dirty just by touching. Today I look back and realize how much she was wrapped up in those myths and taboos and passed them on to us.

I come from a family of seven girls, and I am the third girl. I started menstruating at age 10, way ahead of my two older sisters. One day, I went to the toilet and noticed blood on my pants. I was so confused, especially as I thought being the third born, I would be the third to menstruate. I had never noticed my sisters menstruate, even as we shared the same room. The day I started my period, I quickly cleaned myself up and went out of the toilet. But a few minutes later, I felt wet again, ran to the toilet, and realized I had started menstruating. Devastated and confused, I wept.

Mum had never talked to me about menstruation, so I didn’t have the courage to tell her what was happening. I felt like my family would see me as a bad child for being the first to menstruate in my home. I succeeded in padding myself up with a lot of tissue and my bleeding went unnoticed. Unfortunately, though, my second-day flow was heavy. I told mum I was sick, a perfect excuse to keep me from going to school. I was so cautious and tied a sweater around my waist just in case I soiled my dress. 

That evening my mum became suspicious. She asked me several times why I had the sweater around my waist, but I couldn’t give any tangible excuse. At some point, she pulled off the sweater and saw my dress soiled with blood. Mum took me to her room and broke down crying. “Regie, have you started menstruating at the age of 10? Why did you have to start before your senior sisters?” 

I broke down, too, thinking I had done something wrong. I apologized to her, but after a while, she reassured me that it wasn’t my fault. She taught me how to clean myself up and manage my personal hygiene. It was funny that my mum was educated as a teacher by profession, yet she didn’t feel comfortable talking to her own girls about menstrual hygiene.

As I watched my little girl Therese grow up, I decided that she would not have the bad experience with menstruation I had. I started discussing body changes and menstrual hygiene management with her at the age of nine, careful to give her age-appropriate information. Last year on her 10th birthday, I gave her a menstrual kit as a present made up of pants, a towel, a disposable and reusable pad, a “lion cloth,” and a bra. She was over the moon. Now I can say she is prepared for her period and the changes her body will go through. 

I also educate her brothers on menstrual hygiene, hoping they will be a strong support system for Therese when her period eventually starts. Realizing most of her friends who come around the house have never talked with their mums about this topic except about what they have learned in school, I bring up the topic and encourage them to ask their mums questions. I have also encouraged parents to engage in these discussions at neighborhood meetings.

For the past six years, I have been committed to raising awareness about menstrual hygiene in the Bamenda 2 Municipality. I had the opportunity to work as a community mobilization agent for the Cameroon Baptist convention, in some communities in this area  on gender-based violence for persons with disabilities. I leverage every opportunity to talk to community leaders and members about proper menstrual hygiene management for their children. Thanks to their support, we have been able to educate and distribute dignity kits (menstrual hygiene kits with additional items like a torch light and bathing slippers) to most women and girls of menstruation age and hold workshops on topics related to menstrual hygiene.

Our collective responsibility is to make sure that young girls have the right information about their bodies and safe spaces to address their concerns before their first periods. Therefore, I recommend the government include topics on menstrual hygiene management in all their health campaigns, especially in rural areas where there are still taboos and harmful cultural beliefs and practices surrounding menstruation. Governments should also provide funding for many more menstrual hygiene projects and kit distribution.

We should carry out more sensitization campaigns in our communities to demystify the myths and taboos surrounding menstrual hygiene. At the school level, topics related to menstrual hygiene should be included in the curriculum at an age-appropriate level.

I’m grateful we are finally breaking through taboos and taking actions in the community so that the next generation of girls has a more positive experience of menstruation. We can achieve more if all stakeholders act as a strong support system to young girls so they see periods as their pride.

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