The importance of menstrual hygiene in times of crisis
Guest Blog post by Lift4Life Ambassador Samantha Murray.
Hygiene has never been more important. Whether you are running errands, taking a walk in the park or simply picking up a package at your front door, clean water, sanitization and personal hygiene are easily accessible for most people in North America. It is expected that most of the population should participate in these hygienic practices multiple times a day.
For nearly half of the population, one week of the month – every month of the year – requires an increased amount of attention to hygiene and sanitation. This can be difficult if communities lack access to clean water and menstrual hygiene products themselves such as pads and tampons. Not only that, young girls often lack education around how to use sanitary menstrual products safely, how to properly dispose of used pads or they can’t afford these products to begin with. With this barrier to sanitation, girls often must skip school for multiple weeks during the school year, often causing them to fall so far behind they are forced to drop out.
As Juliet, a 17-year-old Zimbabwean who trains out of the Lift4Life donated gym in Epworth, Harare, states, “Menstruation can affect every aspect of a girls’ life.”
Lift4Life Worldwide is dedicated to uplifting communities through the benefits of strength training and the formal sport of powerlifting. We know, however, that lifting is a small but valuable part in supporting a community to thrive. Barriers caused by menstruation can most definitely stop girls from accessing our gyms and will make it more difficult to support their physical wellbeing if they don’t have the products needed for them to manage their monthly cycle. There are challenges in supporting a girls’ passion for lifting if she faces barriers accessing the gym during her period to begin with.
That is why Lift4Life Worldwide partners with The Restoration Hem Project, a grassroots organization that provides girls in Zimbabwe access to sustainable menstrual hygiene solutions. The Restoration Hem Project provides our lifters and wider community within where our gyms are located with reusable sanitary pads and education around menstrual hygiene. That way, girls are able to manage their periods so they can access their right to an education and continue their passion for lifting in our gyms!
Audrey Svongwa, a Lift4Life powerlifter facilitating strength programs in Zimbabwe says that this partnership is one of the most important things that Lift4Life Worldwide has done; she says “it will really empower girls to be confident and continue to use our gyms.”
Check out Restoration Hem to learn more.
In honour of Menstrual Hygiene Management Day on May 28th, we are asking our supporters to donate $7USD / $10CAD – the price of a reusable sanitary kit to help girls manage their period that will last three years – to Lift4Life Worldwide in support of our partnership with the Restoration Hem Project. This small amount provides underwear, reusable pads, and soap, that can be the difference that ensures a girl can access education and support her physical wellbeing. Hygiene is as important as ever during a pandemic – whether you are from Canada or across the world in Zimbabwe, let’s lift & uplift our community by ensuring everyone has access to sanitation and hygiene.
Girls in Epworth Zimbabwe Lift4Life works with benefiting from a distribution at their school in partnership with Lift4Life.
Happy girls at our Lift4Life gym receiving a sanitary kit to help them manage their period fo the next 3 years!