Let us break the silence, change mindsets and start
openly talking about periods.
This was the sentiment
shared today at the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement Let’s
Talk Periods festival held in Suva to mark World Menstrual
Health Day this week.
Opening the event, FWRM
Governance Board Chair called for an end to the stigma on
periods and advocating for better WASH facilities in
schools.
The annual event, with almost 180
participants from different communities around Suva, is a
platform used to share awareness and information about
menstruation and its related issues.
“Whatever that
is held as taboo does not make sense now – times have
changed. We need to talk about periods, we need to make our
voices louder so that we can have respectable dignified
experiences when we get our periods and unless we have those
open and honest conversations, we are never going to come
out of this cycle of stigmatising periods. It is our
responsibility to ensure that our menstrual needs and health
is well taken care of,” FWRM Executive Director Nalini
Singh said.
Ms Singh made the remarks during an
intergenerational panel facilitated during the programme
that included shared experiences from panelists in their
different stages of the menstrual cycle.
“Periods
are normal. It is natural. It is your body talking to you.
If you don’t get your period, then you know something is
wrong. It is not something you should be ashamed of, it’s
a living breathing rhythm that reminds me of the fact that I
am a woman,” said Jessica Work, International Planned
Parenthood Fiji representative.
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Another panelist,
Shurti Sharma, a graduate of FWRM’s
Grow.Inspire.Relate.Lead.Succeed (GIRLS) Program highlighted
the need for schools to integrate menstrual health and
hygiene learning in the curriculum.
“Make safe
spaces in schools for students to talk openly about
menstruation and the experiences you go through. A lot of
the times, teachers are often shying away from these
conversations and the risk is messages and information are
often not being shared accurately, “Shurti
said.
FWRM believes in more awareness and information
on sexual and reproductive health in our educational
curriculums, especially targeted towards our girls.
Comprehensive Sexuality Education would ensure that topics
such as menstrual health and hygiene is delivered in a much
more effective way.
Other issues raised during the
event was the need to provide free menstrual products and to
avail them in schools, restrooms, prisons and other public
places; the removal of the shame of being on your period and
the need for men to attend such events to learn more about
women’s bodies and to understand the experiences women
have with their periods.
The programme included
partners who collaborated with FWRM to open up booths for
information sharing and awareness on a range of issues such
as menstrual health and hygiene, myths, taboos, reproductive
health, bodily autonomy and more.
Let’s Talk
Periods 2025 was supported by the Australian Government
in partnership with Pacific Menstrual Health Network and
Water Aid.
“It begins with us. Those of you who have
come here, you have probably come with younger members of
your families. It is up to you now to go back and have
conversations about normalising periods beginning from your
homes,”Ms Singh
added.
