Archive - November 10, 2022

On the Pulse Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine   Kelsey Sabo (Uganda 2014-18) now a nurse in training at John Hopkins Nursing was a new PCV when she began to notice in roughly one-week, unexplained, undiscussed absences of female students and teachers each month. Of course they involved the menstrual cycle, in communities where sanitary pads were scarce and girls and women were often bullied for the sudden appearance of blood on skirts. Rather than face the shame and ridicule as well as physical discomfort, they stayed home until the period passed. This meant missed school, missed work — “about 25 percent of the year or about 9 years for the average menstruating woman’s lifetime,” explains Sabo — and missed opportunities to advance toward self-sufficiency. The answer wouldn’t be as simple as helping women and girls learn to make, and eventually sell, sustainable, reusable menstrual pads (RUMPs). But for “Teacher Ayikoru” . . .