TANZANIA: She used leaves during her mensturation



The mother woke up and prepared breakfast for her children. She had only one daughter Upendo (not her real name). The rest were boys. They woke up early in the morning to go to school as they always did. They all attended the same school. Upendo attended all morning sessions without any problems. In the afternoon she had lunch at school. After lunch everyone went into their respective classrooms for the rest of the day’s sessions.



Upendo was busy listening to her teacher during the last of the day’s lessons, un-aware of her body changes. When the lessons for the day ended and ready to leave for home she felt something was wrong, one of the boys had seen something on Upendo’s dress and was now signaling another boy to look at her direction. Upendo wondered what the boys were after. They laughed loud as they went outside. Neema (not her real name) a girl from her class approached her and gently told her to seat back until the rest had left. She kept her company and explained that it was normal to be in that situation for it had happened to her the previous year. Upendo was scared at first and kept asking why it happened. She thought it only happened to those who had sex the first time. Fortunately, for her Neema became her teacher and told her how she escaped the embarrassment during her first period. She explained to her about sanitary towels and how to use them, something she had never seen before.



When everybody else was out of the school compound they both sneaked out. Neema’s home was along Upendo’s way home and she decided to pass-by her home to help Upendo with a few leaves of pads to help her at that time. Unfortunately, she found out that her younger sisters had taken some for her use. Neema had no other alternative for her. She thought of her first experience which was bad but better than none. The idea was use some wide leaves found around their area to help her as pads.



Neema went out of the house and came back with a bunch of leaves in her hands and handed them to Upendo. She explained to her how to use them. This was not a very good solution but again it helped her. She also asked her to tie her school sweater to cover the dress. The two girls became very close friends from then on. When she got home her mother noticed that Upendo was in a hurry to get in and straight to the bathroom after picking her clean home dress.



The mother asked Upendo what was wrong and that’s when she explained to the mother what had happened. The mother blamed herself for not educating her daughter on matters related to menstruation. She explained to the mother how Neema helped her. Two years later, her parents separated, her mother left their home. Every time Upendo asked her father for money he wanted to know what the money was for. It turned out to be difficult for her she to explain and so continued to use the leaves until she completed school. She many times skipped school when she had periods.



This is one of the many challenges that school going girls from my community/ country go through. One of the topics I teach, include how to be ready before, during menstruation what I need now is sanitary towels to keep them in school.





How to Get Involved



Donate Sanitary towels to our girls to help keep them in school

Like this story?
Join World Pulse now to read more inspiring stories and connect with women speaking out across the globe!
Leave a supportive comment to encourage this author
Tell your own story
Explore more stories on topics you care about