Spreading the “Men in Menstruation” campaign across Nepal

Under the slogan of “Men in Menstruation”, SNV Nepal celebrated the third international Menstrual Hygiene Day in 11 districts with 3,500 men and women participating in 47 separate events held in the week leading up to and after May 28th, 2016.

The campaign was spearheaded nationally by the Nepal Fertility Care Centre.  NFCC, as the National Coordinator of MHD 2016, planned three distinct activities engaging religious leaders, fathers of female students, and the media respectively, and coordinated with development actors to spread the campaign across the whole country.

SNV in Nepal, together with its local implementing partners and in coordination with teachers and health personnel, organised events in selected communities and schools in 11 districts.  In addition to sensitisation on the importance of menstrual hygiene, the discussion focussed on materials used for menstrual hygiene and their proper management at the household level.  As a result, 1,170 men committed to ensuring a safe space in their homes for their wives and daughters to properly wash and dry or dispose of used napkins.

In Siraha, Saptari and Surkhet districts, the District WASH Coordination Committees furthermore supported district-wide preparation and circulation of materials for celebration of MHD. In Mugu, a highly challenging and remote district of Nepal, a street performance was also held to further tackle the demeaning practice of 'chhaupadi' still found in some areas, where menstruating women and girls have to follow various restrictions in access and behaviour.

SNV is implementing its Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All (SSH4A) programme in 15 districts in Nepal under two separate projects- the SSH4A project funded by the Civil Society WASH Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (DGIS), The Netherlands and the SSH4A-Results Programme funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).