Thembisa was 14 when she started menstruating. Scared of what was happening in her body and too afraid to ask anyone, the teenager stuffed bits of toilet paper and old clothes into her panties and decided to tell no one.
The second time it happened she again endured it in silence, until she was caught by her mother cutting up old T-shirts for sanitary pads.
It was only then that her mother sat her down to discuss what was happening in her body.
“I thought I had done something bad until she explained that what was happening was normal and I shouldn’t be afraid,” she said.
“My teacher had once mentioned something during life orientation at school but I hadn’t taken it seriously. I was so shocked the day I saw blood coming from my private parts. I thought I was going to be accused of sleeping with boys, which I have never done.”
Thembisa is not alone. Her village schoolmate Anele, who is 17 and in Grade 9, said although she had sat through the same talk during life orientation she had never thought it would happen to her.
She said: “I didn’t think it was real. I had never seen anyone menstruating before so I really didn’t know what was happening.
“I’m the youngest child and I have four brothers. I decided to keep quiet, and I started using pieces of newspaper to absorb the blood.”
Anele, who started her period two years ago, said when her mother discovered she had begun bleeding, she told her to never let her brothers know about it as men “could not be exposed to such things”.
“It’s hard to do that because we never have pads to use.
“I have seen pads once or twice on supermarkets shelves but I have never held one in my hand.
“I still have not used them but that’s because we can’t afford them.
“We use bits of old clothes, or tear up bits of newspaper. Those who are lucky use tissues or toilet paper.
“Obviously these things leak and we end up getting blood on our clothes.
“At school the boys tease us all the time. I don’t think they really understand what’s happening to us.
“If there is a girl in class with blood on her clothes they normally come after her at break, put her in the centre of a big circle and tease her. That’s why many of us would rather stay home during that time of the month,” she said.
The Daily Dispatch interviewed five rural girl pupils, and all had similar stories to tell.
They are living examples of findings of a study conducted by Rhodes University that looked at the challenges experienced by young girls with relation to menstruation and their personal experiences.
According to the research paper, there has been only one research project on the topic, and its focus was on menstrual management, sanitation systems and disposable products in South Africa.
There was nothing that focused on the personal experiences of girls in relation to menstruation.
To fill that gap, Rhodes University partnered with the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction Research Unit (CSSR) and the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics (AGCLE) to form RUCE, which conducted the study.
A survey was conducted on a group of Grade 11 pupils from various schools across the Eastern Cape to identify menstruation-related challenges facing schoolgirls in the province.
The pattern that emerged indicated that prepubescent girls are given very little information about menstruation, and this lack of information affects their management of menstruation.
The study’s literature review reads: “Further, no official research is concerned with whether a lack of access to sanitary products, inadequate sanitation facilities and knowledge regarding menstruation have a direct effect on menstruating girls’ absenteeism from school in South Africa or the Eastern Cape.”
Unathi Baleni, a teacher from a secondary school in Kasa village in the heart of the rural east of the Eastern Cape, said most girls from the area first learned of menstruation within the walls of the classroom and not at home.
“When we’re teaching them we can see that they’re shy and they struggle to maintain eye contact with us teachers. There’s not much talk about the topic at home so it makes them uncomfortable when it comes up.
“The boys often laugh but we can see it’s just to deflect from the topic because it makes them uncomfortable too,” she said.
As part of the research, Rhodes University team member Lindsay Kelland made school visits to talk to pupils about menstruation.
Later, in an interview with The Conversation Africa, she recounted how a Grade 7 boy had asked her: “Is it real?”
This, Kelland continues in the interview, shows that such spaces – where pupils are given a platform to ask questions around the topic – had not been open before.
With their limited understanding of the issue, Baleni said, many girls try to hide the fact that they have started menstruating.
However, she adds, many teachers have learned to watch for signs.
“Sometimes a girl will suddenly say she’s feeling ill and wants to go home. When we ask what’s wrong, they might say they have a headache or a stomachache.
“It’s when they get up from their chairs that we notice their gym dresses show a spot of blood.
“We normally pull them aside and ask them what’s happening and give them a pad, which is another struggle on its own.
“The school sometimes collects so that we have some to give to them when the time comes but because menstruation is a monthly issue and there are so many children who cannot afford them, we don’t always have. Often we as teachers dig into our own pockets so that we don’t run out.”
According to the study, schoolgirls face a number of menstruation-related challenges, with access to modern, reliable and hygienic products at affordable prices being just one of them.
It reads: “A recent international study by Unicef concluded that menstruation may seriously affect girls’ attendance, attention and achievement in school in both rural and urban areas ... if a girl has no access to protective materials or if the materials she has are unreliable and cause embarrassment, she may be forced to stay at home while menstruating. This absence of about four days every four weeks may result in the girl missing 10 to 20% of her school days. Inevitably, it will be difficult for a girl who misses so much schoolwork to keep up.”
Over the years there have been a number of initiatives to try and ensure that all young women in the country have easy access to hygienic products. In 2008 the Young Communist League’s Gender Commission ran a campaign for free sanitary pads. More recently the Siyahluma Project, started by five foster mothers with the Grahamstown Child Welfare Service, started an enterprise to produce reusable sanitary products. These kits are distributed free or at minimal cost.
Currently, on hearing of the plight of a number of schoolgirls across the Eastern Cape, Mthatha-based philanthropist Tshepo Machaea has partnered with Umhlobo Wenene radio station presenter Reverend Mzukisi Faleni to collect one million sanitary towels by June 30.
The initiative, dubbed the “One Month, One Million Sanitary Towels”, will see donations dropped off at the OR Tambo mayor’s office to be distributed to needy schools in the region.
Baleni said initiatives like these were very welcome as many rural shopkeepers did not even bother to stock sanitary towels.
She explained that teachers usually stocked up on supplies whenever they visited the closest town.
“The reason could be a mixture of the fact that not many women from this area actually buy pads because they can’t afford them or because the topic of menstruation is so taboo that men don’t even want to see these products on the shelves in the shops.”
lNames have been changed to protect the identities of the young girls
Taboo causes terrifying start to adulthood
The second time it happened she again endured it in silence, until she was caught by her mother cutting up old T-shirts for sanitary pads.
It was only then that her mother sat her down to discuss what was happening in her body.
“I thought I had done something bad until she explained that what was happening was normal and I shouldn’t be afraid,” she said.
“My teacher had once mentioned something during life orientation at school but I hadn’t taken it seriously. I was so shocked the day I saw blood coming from my private parts. I thought I was going to be accused of sleeping with boys, which I have never done.”
Thembisa is not alone. Her village schoolmate Anele, who is 17 and in Grade 9, said although she had sat through the same talk during life orientation she had never thought it would happen to her.
She said: “I didn’t think it was real. I had never seen anyone menstruating before so I really didn’t know what was happening.
“I’m the youngest child and I have four brothers. I decided to keep quiet, and I started using pieces of newspaper to absorb the blood.”
Anele, who started her period two years ago, said when her mother discovered she had begun bleeding, she told her to never let her brothers know about it as men “could not be exposed to such things”.
“It’s hard to do that because we never have pads to use.
“I have seen pads once or twice on supermarkets shelves but I have never held one in my hand.
“I still have not used them but that’s because we can’t afford them.
“We use bits of old clothes, or tear up bits of newspaper. Those who are lucky use tissues or toilet paper.
“Obviously these things leak and we end up getting blood on our clothes.
“At school the boys tease us all the time. I don’t think they really understand what’s happening to us.
“If there is a girl in class with blood on her clothes they normally come after her at break, put her in the centre of a big circle and tease her. That’s why many of us would rather stay home during that time of the month,” she said.
The Daily Dispatch interviewed five rural girl pupils, and all had similar stories to tell.
They are living examples of findings of a study conducted by Rhodes University that looked at the challenges experienced by young girls with relation to menstruation and their personal experiences.
According to the research paper, there has been only one research project on the topic, and its focus was on menstrual management, sanitation systems and disposable products in South Africa.
There was nothing that focused on the personal experiences of girls in relation to menstruation.
To fill that gap, Rhodes University partnered with the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction Research Unit (CSSR) and the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics (AGCLE) to form RUCE, which conducted the study.
A survey was conducted on a group of Grade 11 pupils from various schools across the Eastern Cape to identify menstruation-related challenges facing schoolgirls in the province.
The pattern that emerged indicated that prepubescent girls are given very little information about menstruation, and this lack of information affects their management of menstruation.
The study’s literature review reads: “Further, no official research is concerned with whether a lack of access to sanitary products, inadequate sanitation facilities and knowledge regarding menstruation have a direct effect on menstruating girls’ absenteeism from school in South Africa or the Eastern Cape.”
Unathi Baleni, a teacher from a secondary school in Kasa village in the heart of the rural east of the Eastern Cape, said most girls from the area first learned of menstruation within the walls of the classroom and not at home.
“When we’re teaching them we can see that they’re shy and they struggle to maintain eye contact with us teachers. There’s not much talk about the topic at home so it makes them uncomfortable when it comes up.
“The boys often laugh but we can see it’s just to deflect from the topic because it makes them uncomfortable too,” she said.
As part of the research, Rhodes University team member Lindsay Kelland made school visits to talk to pupils about menstruation.
Later, in an interview with The Conversation Africa, she recounted how a Grade 7 boy had asked her: “Is it real?”
This, Kelland continues in the interview, shows that such spaces – where pupils are given a platform to ask questions around the topic – had not been open before.
With their limited understanding of the issue, Baleni said, many girls try to hide the fact that they have started menstruating.
However, she adds, many teachers have learned to watch for signs.
“Sometimes a girl will suddenly say she’s feeling ill and wants to go home. When we ask what’s wrong, they might say they have a headache or a stomachache.
“It’s when they get up from their chairs that we notice their gym dresses show a spot of blood.
“We normally pull them aside and ask them what’s happening and give them a pad, which is another struggle on its own.
“The school sometimes collects so that we have some to give to them when the time comes but because menstruation is a monthly issue and there are so many children who cannot afford them, we don’t always have. Often we as teachers dig into our own pockets so that we don’t run out.”
According to the study, schoolgirls face a number of menstruation-related challenges, with access to modern, reliable and hygienic products at affordable prices being just one of them.
It reads: “A recent international study by Unicef concluded that menstruation may seriously affect girls’ attendance, attention and achievement in school in both rural and urban areas ... if a girl has no access to protective materials or if the materials she has are unreliable and cause embarrassment, she may be forced to stay at home while menstruating. This absence of about four days every four weeks may result in the girl missing 10 to 20% of her school days. Inevitably, it will be difficult for a girl who misses so much schoolwork to keep up.”
Over the years there have been a number of initiatives to try and ensure that all young women in the country have easy access to hygienic products. In 2008 the Young Communist League’s Gender Commission ran a campaign for free sanitary pads. More recently the Siyahluma Project, started by five foster mothers with the Grahamstown Child Welfare Service, started an enterprise to produce reusable sanitary products. These kits are distributed free or at minimal cost.
Currently, on hearing of the plight of a number of schoolgirls across the Eastern Cape, Mthatha-based philanthropist Tshepo Machaea has partnered with Umhlobo Wenene radio station presenter Reverend Mzukisi Faleni to collect one million sanitary towels by June 30.
The initiative, dubbed the “One Month, One Million Sanitary Towels”, will see donations dropped off at the OR Tambo mayor’s office to be distributed to needy schools in the region.
Baleni said initiatives like these were very welcome as many rural shopkeepers did not even bother to stock sanitary towels.
She explained that teachers usually stocked up on supplies whenever they visited the closest town.
“The reason could be a mixture of the fact that not many women from this area actually buy pads because they can’t afford them or because the topic of menstruation is so taboo that men don’t even want to see these products on the shelves in the shops.”
lNames have been changed to protect the identities of the young girls
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