In contexts of disadvantage in Africa, menstruation is linked to stigma, embarrassment and uneasiness. Adolescent African girls usually develop feelings of humiliation and distress about their bodies during menstruation. These feelings are frequently exacerbated when girls cannot access sanitary wear to assist them in managing menstruation. This consequently leads to adolescent girls ostracising themselves from school during their periods. SAYWEN helps African girls stay in school by providing sanitary wear, reproductive health, and sex education. SAYWEN was founded in 2010 by Dr Brantina Chirinda in response to the unpleasant reality that millions of African girls miss school days and others even drop out entirely because they cannot access sufficient and appropriate sanitary wear.

Dr Brantina Chirinda remembers that during her first period, she had no information about menstruation and was oblivious to what to do. In her own words, Dr Brantina says, “I wish someone had spoken to me about menstruation and demonstrated how to put on a pad. I came from a poor family and I had a few pads for the school term such that on my menstruation days I would wear a pad for a long time. I was terrified of  leaking blood on my uniform at school. I was also scared of giving off an odor or in general being found out to be menstruating. On my menstruation days, I could barely concentrate or participate fully in class. I felt like it was unlawful to menstruate.” Dr Brantina’s experiences have persuaded and motivated her to establish the SAYWEN organization, which supplies adolescent girls with Sanitary wear and breaks the shame and stigma around menstruation.

Teacher Talent leads a team of well-qualified and highly-trained facilitators to deliver SAYWEN’s reproductive health, hygiene, puberty and sexual education programme to girls-only meetings. For over 25 years, teacher Talent has worked as a primary school teacher in Zimbabwe’s impoverished rural areas. Teacher Talent says: “Over the many years, I have taught in Zimbabwe’s rural areas I have experienced that lack of information and misconceptions about menstruation results in negative self-esteem and self-image among girls who are menstruating for the first time. This usually results in a lack of self-regard as these girls develop their personalities as women. SAYWEN destroys the culture of ‘silence’ and negative perceptions around menstruation. In our programmes we help girls to understand that menstruation is not shameful and need not be hidden.”

Teacher Abigail, a qualified school teacher, is our lead trainer in the Harare Province. Her prior work for close to twenty years in the rural areas of Guruve has led to her thorough understanding of the specific needs and challenges that African adolescent girls face. Teacher Abigail explains that both in the Harare province and impoverished rural areas that she worked in, teenage girls experience stigma around menstruation and lack opportunities to discuss menstruation. She further describes that in schools located in contexts of disadvantage, there are few or no resources to support menstruating teenage girls. The school toilets are frequently unclean with broken or no doors at all.