Studies indicate that as of 2017, over 30 million menstruators were replaced due to conflicts, violence, and disasters, while many millions more were affected without being displaced. Women and girls are always vulnerable to disasters, emergencies, and conflicts. Hundreds of thousands of menstruators were internally displaced during the 2017 post-election violence in Kenya, leaving them vulnerable and unable to tend to their menstruation normally and hygienically.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 affected over 15 million people in different ways varying from having to evacuate their homes, disruptions in the supply of clean water for drinking and bathing, interruption of health care, crowded conditions in shelters, and disruption of public health and clinical care infrastructure posing greater risks to women and girls.
The Challenges
Apart from socio-economic and mental health challenges, displaced menstruators face additional challenges to menstrual health and hygiene. They find themselves living in camps and sites which lack adequate sanitation facilities such as toilets, clean water, and soap, which may support them during menstruation. Accessing menstruation products in these sites is also a challenge. Additionally, they may live near men reducing privacy, affecting their ability to menstruate normally without shame and stigma.
In the middle of a humanitarian crisis, menstrual health becomes a ‘luxury.’ It is always an abandoned need as people struggle to get essential needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare.
Critical needs for having dignified menstruation remain largely unmet for menstruators of reproductive age. In addition to living in crowded areas without privacy, basic comprehensive sexuality education that is age and context-appropriate for menstrual hygiene promotion remains a challenge throughout most humanitarian crises.
What Can Be Done?
Without the provision of appropriate menstrual materials, including pads, cups, and underwear and access to supportive supplies such as a torch, soap, bucket, water, and pain relievers, the mobility, and productivity of menstruators would be limited. Moreover, their health and safety can also be compromised, which may force them not to seek basic services, including humanitarian aid.
The provision of female-friendly WASH facilities with environmentally friendly and sustainable disposal options and menstrual hygiene kits and services (pdf) is essential in addressing health and safety concerns, including the ability to promote a clean environment, self-esteem, protection from dangers, and sexual and reproductive health and rights of menstruators.
Menstruation is a human right that should not be neglected even during humanitarian crises. All stakeholders should develop menstrual hygiene initiatives that go beyond providing pads or cups only but provide menstruators with relevant information to make informed choices and the ability to select culturally appropriate products from the range of available sanitary products.
Menstrual hygiene management during humanitarian crises involves adjustments and improvements to a variety of sectoral interventions such as sexual and reproductive health, WASH, and education of which are specific to menstruation. Training staff of different gender across sectors that may be involved with menstrual hygiene management programming is the most effective method in mainstreaming MHM during emergency responses.