We've got good at talking about sanitary pads. I'm not sure we've got as good at talking about everything around them. Pads matter, no question. But a girl can have one in her bag and still spend the whole day worrying about where she'll change it. Picture a school toilet with no water and a door that won't lock, and a group of boys waiting outside. I keep going back and forth on this. One view says get supplies to every girl first, and the rest can follow. The other says supplies alone just treat the symptom. I can see both.
In school feeding, we count meals served and attendance. We don't count the girls who stay home three or four days a month, and I'm starting to wonder how many that is.
Tell me where you land:
1. Supplies first, or the whole environment? Where should the next shilling go?
2. What's the barrier nobody mentions in meetings?
3. Where do boys and men fit in? How do we involve them without making girls uncomfortable?
4. What have you seen work, even in a small way?
5. Has anyone tried to measure the days girls miss? How did you do it?
Whether you teach, nurse, parent, or just remember yourself being fifteen, I'd like to hear from all of you.
