Improving School Attendance and Positive Feelings about Menstruation for Girls in Ghana through a Holistic Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management Approach

Global Communities is pleased to share a new research and learning brief “Improving School Attendance and Positive Feelings about Menstruation for Girls in Ghana through a Holistic Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management Approach.” The brief is based on findings from a 6 month pilot project and survey conducted by the Ghana WASH 4 Health Program, with technical support from Be Girl, a mission driven US-based social enterprise that creates innovative, reusable menstrual protection products and age-appropriate menstrual education methodologies.

Key Findings from this research included:

• Girls reporting difficulties in attending schools was reduced from 47% to 10% as a result of the pilot intervention, suggesting that a holistic MHH approach, that includes providing sustainable period products and education effectively reduced barriers to girls’ school attendance.
• As a result of the intervention, 92% of girls reported positive feelings about menstruation and 88% of boys reported feeling more comfortable around girls during their period, suggesting that SmartCycle® MHH education increased boys’ and girls’ awareness of reproductive growth and menstruation as natural biological processes.
• The intervention was similarly impactful in rural and urban areas, with students in both regions experiencing a roughly five fold decrease in reported difficulties attending school during menstruation. However, there is an underlying rural-urban divide, with 58% of girls in rural areas reporting difficulties attending school prior to the intervention, as compared to 41% of girls in urban areas.