The recent revision in school curriculum to include MHM as a topic from grade 4 to 12 demands supplementary resource materials for children and teachers to make students learning on menstruation inside the classroom with ease. In this scenario GIZ, John Moore University and Global Action Nepal came with the idea of collating all materials and finding the materials gap, developing as per the new curriculum and piloting these existing and new products in different geographical region of the country It has been observed that a rich array of education materials prepared by different organizations, Government agencies Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Family planning.
Therefore, the need has been identified to compile and make an index of existing teaching and learning materials around the topic of menstruation in order to provide teachers and health educators a comprehensive choice according to different age group.
The education toolkit thus serves as a support for teachers and students to teach and learn about menstruation in and inter disciplinary way. It will include education materials developed by members of MHMPA during the past years.
As per the outcome of materials gap identification, a 3 days long residential workshop was organized for the development of materials as required by the curriculum on 10-12 April 2021 at Gan Research and Learning Resource Center, Lalitpur. During the workshop participants were divided into 3 groups as group one was assigned for Grade 4,5, and 6, group 2 was assigned for Grade 7,8, and 9 and group 3 was assigned for Grade 10,11 and 12. All the groups rigorously worked on their assigned task and prepared materials for the tool kit . During the workshop, participants also revisited the outcomes of previous workshop and assessment of existing materials.
A total of 23 participants representing members of MHMPA and partners of DWD were present in the workshop. The materials were produced from 3 different groups.
Menstruation is a cross sectorial issue, dominantly linked with education, human rights, reproductive health as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and gender sectors in Nepal. In the absence of informed planning, policies and programs, women and girls might be deprived of not only human dignity during their menstruation, but also suffering from social stigma and taboos around menstruation on their health and education.
In Nepal, women and girls do not have the basic right to a dignified menstrual cycle. This means that they are subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment, including abuse and violence. The exclusionary practices, stigma and prohibitions surrounding menstruation, inherent in traditional beliefs and cultural heritage practices, have a negative impact on school attendance and employment, preventing women and girls from fully participating in economic and social life. This has become an emerging problem in Nepal. Due to the lack of informed plans, policies and programs, women and girls are not only deprived of human dignity during menstruation, but also social stigma and taboo on their health and education. Majority teachers are skipping reproductive health and Menstruation content so students have rare understanding of physiology human body and its system. Therefore, A Menstruation education toolkits were developed to ease and less challenging for teacher and students while learning sexual reproductive health.