Menstrual hygiene management (Malawi)

Factors surrounding menstruation impacted girl’s education negatively in Mzimba North in Malawi and resulted in failure to attain their future goals. The study was conducted in the Enqucwini Education Zone in Mzimba District. It assessed Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) among adolescent girls. It was a mixed method with sample size of 81 girls. Data were collected through questionnaires, direct observation on demographic characteristics, availability of sanitary facilities, strategies for menstrual hygiene management, FDG, key informants and participant observation were used to collect data on their experiences. Qualitative data were analysed using the thematic analysis. The study findings showed that MHM was a mixed bag, common sanitary facilities available were pit latrines (100 %), and bathrooms (95 %). Younger adolescent girls (39 %) failed to better manage menstruation and had high school absenteeism; every respondent was absenting from school during menstrual every month (85 %). Further the study found that there was lack of proper education on management of menstruation (96 %) and 63 % of the respondents cited lack of adequate facilities and cultural briefs as captured in the FDGs. Almost 85 % of adolescent girls absented themselves from school every month and 66 % of them responded that their education performance was affected from their attainment of menarche. Availability of sanitary facilities, experiences girls encountered, cultural beliefs and socio-cultural factors had a bearing on girls’ education contributed to loss of lessons by girls during menstruation. The study recommended compliance to sanitation policy on school management to invest in development of facilities to improve sanitation, safe hygienic behaviour to be the norm for safe disposal of soiled menstrual materials.