Dignity in menstruation: a shared responsibility, not a women and girl's issue

Yet across many communities in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, menstruation remains wrapped in silence, mysticism, and shame. A natural biological process one that signals health and the continuation of life has instead become a barrier to girls’ education, safety, and opportunity. It becomes an invisible glass wall, slowing the progress of women and girls and denying them the right to feel safe, understood, supported, and valued.

In too many schools, the systems that enable menstrual hygiene management simply do not exist. Water is scarce. Sanitary materials are unavailable. Safe and private spaces are absent. When menstruation comes, many girls stay home missing days of lessons, confidence, and fragments of childhood along the way.

In the crisis-affected Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, where the Anglophone conflict has already disrupted education, girls lose an average of 36 school days each academic year due to mandatory ghost towns on Mondays. When menstruation is added to this reality, some girls miss 54 to 81 days of school every year. As local wisdom reminds us: “When one leg is injured, the journey becomes longer.”

“Menstruation to me was something dirty that made me hide.”
— Angel, GBHS Kossala, Meme Division

In GBHS Kossala, students sat quietly, curious about what the “NGO people” had come to say. There was a familiar excitement in the room often, visitors bring food or supplies. But as  sensitization and mentioned menstruation, the mood shifted. At the mere mention of the word, heads bowed. Giggles followed. Faces were covered. Unease filled the air.

In a world overflowing with information, such myths may seem unbelievable. Yet in crisis-affected communities, survival often comes before learning. When the choice is food or menstrual pads, food will always win. Conversations about menstruation are postponed, silenced, or ignored even within homes. Girls are left to interpret natural bodily changes on their own, allowing myths, fear, and stigma to flourish.

Inspired by global evidence and UNICEF-supported interventions, where dignity kits, local pad production, and menstrual education have helped keep girls in school we adopt an approach that blends play, art, and science to replace fear with familiarity.

We begin by dismantling shame. The lead facilitator shouts, “Dignityyyyy!”
The children respond, “Menstruationnnn!”

They clap, laugh, and move repeating the chant until the word menstruation is no longer whispered, but joyfully shouted. In that moment, a taboo becomes normal. A door opens for learning.

At GBHS Kossala as in many other schools girls receive dignity boxes equipped with menstrual education charts, disposable pads, panties, towels, and essential menstrual supplies. These boxes serve as emergency solutions, ensuring that no girl has to leave school because of her period. Girls can clean up, change safely, and remain in class with confidence.

The “My First Period” handbook is also distributed, an age-appropriate learning material designed to help children understand menstruation with knowledge, care, and dignity.

Through these efforts, UNICEF, working closely with its implementing partner Royalty World, is ensuring that every girl— including girls with disabilities— is sensitized, supported, and provided with the care and resources needed to manage menstruation with dignity. Our approach is inclusive by design, recognizing that girls with disabilities face compounded barriers and must not be left behind in menstrual health education and services.

These life-changing interventions are made possible thanks to the generous support of the European Union Humanitarian Aid and the Government of Japan, whose commitment continues to protect the dignity, health, and education of girls in crisis-affected communities across Cameroon.

We call on all counterparts government institutions, civil society actors, community leaders, educators, and private sector partners to join us in breaking the silence around menstruation. Invest in menstrual hygiene management. Create safe spaces in schools. Normalize conversations at home and in communities.

Because when girls are supported to manage menstruation with dignity, they stay in school, they thrive, and our collective future becomes stronger.