On 13th March at Kdol Tahen School, a meeting about menstrual health was held with 65 attendees. The meeting aimed to increase awareness of and advise both mothers and their daughters about menstrual health. It is vital to have informed support at home, in school and in the general community so girls can develop healthy hygiene habits during menstruation and not have their school attendance affected because of it.
A member of the Commune Committee for Women and Children, CCWC, who is trained on women and girls’ health care by the health center also participated in this meeting. She stressed the importance of menstrual health support from girls’ mothers, especially for younger girls. She extended her ongoing support to those mothers who were not able to attend the meeting as well as the school and community as a whole.
The school principal showed the attendees the menstrual health pack they each received from SeeBeyondBorders as well as explaining how to use and clean them. The school plans to conduct the menstrual health meeting with mothers every year and to provide training to girls twice a year through cooperation with the local health center and CCWC.
Kimlen Tan, Project Manager – Bavel said of the meeting “The meeting was important as the school wants to promote awareness and seek support from mothers of girls to care about girls’ menstrual health. A lot of women in rural areas feel shy and reluctant to talk about this because of social norms in Cambodia. This causes a lot of girls, and women, to suffer in silence with preventable illness due to lack of menstrual health care.
This meeting was a great success as all 65 mothers who attended committed to talk openly with and to support their daughters at home and with other mothers in their community. The school also committed to continuing this work by conducting mothers meeting every year and provide training to girls twice a year without SeeBeyondBorders assistance.”
Our work with Mothers and Community Engagement is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). ANCP enables our work engaging parents in schools such as Kdol Tahen and is a cornerstone of our efforts to improve access to education for all Cambodians.
Our work with Mothers in Kdol Tahen is part of our Community Engagement focus area. This focus area is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). Our ANCP accreditation is crucial to our efforts to improve access to education for all Cambodians.
We thank everyone who participated and hope that the meeting was informative and helpful.