Menstrual Hygiene Day happens worldwide every year on May 28th when people come together to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene, to end stigma and ensure access to safe and affordable menstrual care to women and girls.

Despite growing awareness, menstruation is still a taboo to some communities in Kenya. A community like Turkana is still rooted to its cultural beliefs and myths which spreads stigma, shame, discriminations around menstruation and forced early marriages.

In some villages in Turkana, girls are forced to sleep in separate huts or in different homes with their families often without proper sanitary products, clean water and even safety. This is because during menstruation, a girl is considered “unclean” and therefore is hindered from interacting with other people.

World Menstrual Hygiene Day is a call to action for the government, the non-governmental organizations, communities and schools to invest more on menstrual health by providing free sanitary products, menstrual health education and offer affordable market to sanitary towels.

Organizations working in Turkana are filling the gap by trying to change that narrative of culture by providing menstrual health education to the community including both the girls and their parents in discissions about dignuty and rights.