A research conducted by I&O Research, on behalf of Amnesty International, shared shocking findings about Dutch female students. The report states that one in ten Dutch female students were raped. This finding has been apparent from a nationally representative survey of 1,059 students in higher education that took place from 10 to 17 of May, 2021.

The report also revealed that 11% of all college students have experienced sexual penetration that they did not consent to – especially female students (18% of females; 3% of males). One in five students experienced non-consensual sexual advances during college (31% of females; 11% of males).

Most students who experienced non-consensual sexual penetration during college were not coerced through physical violence – although 10% were. Usually, there is insistence (67%); ignoring or continuing without checking for consent (72%); or ignorance of verbal or non-verbal indications (64%). It also happens that the harasser continues to commit GBV while the person experiencing trauma stops responding or freezes (63%).

Students who experience sexual penetration without consenting to it do not consider it rape themselves in 60 percent of the cases. When asked why they think so, their interpretation suggests:

• it did not match the image of rape and it was not serious enough;
• it happened within a relationship or with someone they loved at that time;
• they also feel responsible for what happened and feel that they did not state clearly enough that they did not want it.

Link: Een op tien vrouwelijke studenten tijdens studietijd zonder instemming gepenetreerd

In the wake of the theme "Let's fight against gender-based violence" at the 12th edition of the Burundi International Film and Audiovisual Festival, Festicab held a workshop on gender-based violence (GBV) on June 2, 2021.

“In ancient Burundi, there was a practice called gushinga amacumu, where the bride used to be beaten by her husband since the first months of her marriage as a sign of initiation to respect him”, says Balthazar Habonimana, panelist and founder of the Bashingantahe Institution in Burundi. For him, certain practices in Burundian tradition legitimised the harmful traditions of the man over the woman.

It is also the case with practices such as gushing'icumu (the practice of planting a spear in another man's yard to let him know that his wife is having sex with another man); guter'intobo (subtle gestures made by the father-in-law to invite his daughter-in-law to sleep with him); gukanda umuvyeyi (sleeping with one's wife while she is still recovering from motherhood).

Women were thus objectified and kept at the mercy of the manias and desires of men, and unfortunately these practices are present even in the twenty-first century. However, one of the founders of the Bashingantahe Institution in Burundi said, “a few women are beaten by their husbands under various pretexts to signify that they must be submissive to them, often under the influence of alcohol or bad company.”

Among the most possible places where GBV is committed, households top the list, with family members being the primary perpetrators of GBV.

We must not forget that GBV is still one of the most common and destructive human rights violations in the world, and evidently, Burundi is in its turmoil. This makes the work and establishment of SN-BU more important than ever.

Click here to read more.

Source: Les VBG en ligne de mire du Festicab

Loss of income of parents and school closures amid the pandemic are the primary reasons behind more incidents of child marriage.

Bangladesh witnessed the highest rate of child marriage in the last 25 years. Reports say that there is a 13% increase of child marriage during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the deadly virus massively affected societies and economies, it pushed many families into extreme poverty. Child marriage has always been a huge obstacle to development for countries like Bangladesh, and the virus has hindered the efforts to combat it.

According to Save the Children’s Global Report, about 200,000 girls in South Asia were at risk of new child marriages in 2020, while an additional 2.5 million girls will fall victim to child marriage by 2025.

The Gender, Justice and Diversity department of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, also found that child marriage has increased by 13% when it conducted a survey to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and adolescents in 11 districts across the country last year. The survey found that the loss of income of parents and school closures amid the pandemic are the main reasons behind the increase in child marriages.

According to various non-governmental organisations, child marriage has increased at an alarming rate between May and September of 2020. The government, through the local administration, law enforcement agencies, and with help of NGOs, has been working hard to prevent child marriages across the country.

Last October, child marriage and violence against women and children during the pandemic received top priority at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA).

According to data by the MoWCA, child marriage has increased rapidly in Kurigram, Natore, Jessore, Kushtia, Narsingdi and Jhalokati districts.

As per the official data, 231 child marriages occurred across the country in the first three months (March to June) of the lockdown last year, while the highest number of 61 child marriages took place in the northern district of Kurigram.

Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), said 59% of girls in the country are married before the age of 18, while 22% are married before their 15th birthday.

Explaining why child marriage has increased during the pandemic, Anam said, “...all educational institutions in the country remained closed to prevent the spread of the virus and many people also lost their jobs. Many parents grew worried about keeping their children with them because of social security concerns.”

The situation prompted the parents to ‘arrange’ marriages for their teenage/underage daughters.

Chowdhury Mohiman, manager of the Child Helpline 1098, run in collaboration with UNICEF, said that the reported cases of child marriages received by the child helpline have gone up alarmingly during the pandemic period. In April last year, Child Helpline received 450 phone calls related to child marriage.

Representational Photo: BSS

Source: Dhaka Tribune

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are key to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In an effort to facilitate the knowledge needed to implement long-lasting change, Share-Net International (SNI) brings together social actors around the table who have the capacity to change SRHR policies and practice.

In short, our mission is to strengthen linkages between research, policy and practice through sharing, generating, translating and promoting the use of knowledge for the development of better policies and practices in SRHR. This mission gained more urgency with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, a global crisis that laid bare the fragility of many SRHR approaches while highlighting the need for holistic wellness.

By leveraging the SNI small grants facility, some of the grantees of the small grants 2020 developed knowledge products and activities to bridge SRHR gaps, and in some cases, construct whole new avenues to improve and sustain policy and practice.

Visit https://affecting-change.share-netinternational.org/ to find out more about the specific small grants and follow our social media campaign via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

As we were just going through the recent statistics indicating an increase in gender-based violence and violence against women, it was found from a nationwide research that 63% of men — from both urban and rural areas — agreed that “wives can be hit if they deny to have sex with their husbands” while another 62% believed that “there are times when wives deserve to be beaten.”

The survey, titled ‘Male Youth and their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Bangladesh: a Mixed-Methods Nationwide Study’ was conducted by BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (BRAC-JPGSPH). It was conducted through systematic random sampling from all 64 districts in Bangladesh (from 81 urban and 289 rural clusters) where 11,102 male respondents aged between 15 and 24 participated. The survey was funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangladesh.

Besides, 27% of male youth have not heard the term ‘family planning’ and only 6% of males consulted with a health professional only once, while most reported that their first points of contact for SRH problems was with kobiraj (traditional doctors), homoeopathy doctors or local medicine dispensaries.

Among other major findings, 54% of the respondents had not heard of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), while 28% of young males agreed/strongly agreed that STDs are a result of weak faith, curses or the “evil eye”.

The study also found that male SRH issues are not equally and elaborately described in textbooks compared to females, and teachers are not adequately sensitised to these issues, which is why SRHR sections of the textbooks are mostly ignored in classrooms and exams.

According to the study, despite having 11 SRHR programmes, there is no programme solely designed for male youth as they are included only to complement the objectives for enhancing female SRHR.

Infographic on the research (published on December 2020): Male Youth and Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Bangladesh: a Mixed-Methods Nationwide Study Infographic

Source: The Daily Star

The Higher Population Council and Share-Net Jordan launched the activities of the project “Towards more sustainable services and solutions to the sexual and reproductive health needs of youth and refugees in Jordan” in partnership with the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Dutch Belink Academy, the Royal Tropical Institute, the Jordanian Ahl Al Jabal Association and the University of Yarmouk.

The objectives of the project are to design a unified approach based on international standards to implement and coordinate efforts in a more structured manner to address sexual and reproductive health issues effectively and efficiently with a special focus on the most vulnerable communities in Jordan. The project also aims to improve the collaboration between key stakeholders (governmental organizations, information institutions and community-based organizations), and to upscale the knowledge and skills of trainers on sexual and reproductive health and gender equality through the establishment of a joint academy for training on sexual and reproductive health and rights – focusing on awareness of gender and human rights.

During the launch, the logical framework and the approach adopted by the Higher Population Council were presented. This approach provides access to reproductive health services with high efficiency through the change management theory system and achieves impact and results by adopting four tracks within the strategy of creating, managing and sharing knowledge, translating it into applicable practices and promoting its use.

The most important challenges that Jordan faces in the field of sexual and reproductive health were also addressed. These are exemplified in-

• the existence of wrong societal beliefs about such issues that generate harmful attitudes and behaviors that constitute a societal problem;
• the absence of national training manuals and guidelines in accordance with international standards;
• lack of trainers specialized in the field of sexual and reproductive health;
• the limited distribution of qualified human resources in the health and non-health sectors which hinders the provision of high-quality services and information in the field of sexual and reproductive health and basic reproductive rights, especially those related to youth;
• the limited awareness-raising activities that involve community participation and inclusion, in addition to gender inequality.

In addition, not all existing awareness programs in Jordan are comprehensive and specialized in raising awareness about sexual and reproductive health for adolescents and youth and do not take into account the needs of special age groups within the broad youth group. Additionally, existing awareness programs lack extensive and profound coverage of these issues as well.

The council seeks to achieve the project objectives by:

• aligning training and education inputs and outputs with the national vision and sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights interventions at community levels;
• designing a unified approach based on international standards to implement and coordinate efforts in a more structured manner to address sexual and reproductive health issues effectively and efficiently;
• establish a formal partnership between a relevant governmental organization, a knowledge institution and a community organization to address these issues at the regional and community levels across Jordan;
• invest in developing the capacity of our staff to enable them to develop and implement effective interventions on these issues; and
• establish a training academy in the field of sexual and reproductive health to provide accredited training courses in this field for health practitioners and community workers.

EAHSC is an EAC biennial event convened in East Africa by the EAHRC in collaboration with a host EAC Partner States. Hosting of the event is rotational to each of the Partner States in close collaboration with the regional and international health-related NGOs, civil society, individuals, researchers, practitioners and stakeholders.

The EAHSC contributes towards strengthening regional cooperation in health and enhances the EAC ideals of free movement of People, Services and Goods.

This year's conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya. The date and the venue will be announced shortly.

Click here for updates.

The FREE Fund application round is now open to individuals and organisations working to increase the economic resilience of adolescent girls and young women in their communities. FREE is open for applications from Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Nepal, and Bangladesh!

Check out http://thefreefund.org to see if you are eligible!

Why Girls & Women?

Evidence is indicating that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting adolescent girls and young women, and threatens the gains of the past decades in advancing women’s economic empowerment, health, rights and safety. They face a particular set of financial and social burdens which make their ability to thrive and fulfil their potential more difficult.

About FREE Fund

Very few funds relate gender equity to economic resilience, and existing funds responding to COVID-19 are primarily focused on short term, critical needs. The FREE (Financial Resilience for Economic Empowerment) Fund aims to provide a solution to this challenge.

Who Can Apply?

FREE is accepting applications from individual women, grassroots groups and organisations supporting the long-term economic resilience of adolescent girls and young women.

Deadline for application:

Applications are open until the 7th of July 2021.

Text & Photo Source: the FREE Fund – www.thefreefund.org

To participate in the Share-Net 10th Annual Meeting: “Linking Research, Policy and Practice” (LRPP), tentatively planned to be held on the 18th of November 2021, Share-Net invites young people under 35 years of age to submit abstracts.

Who can apply: We encourage Master and postgraduate students, research interns and young professionals who have recently finalised (or will finalise by the end of this year) their studies to submit an abstract! The selection committee will consider abstracts of applicants younger than 35 years old and will assess them in terms of justification, theoretical framework, methodology, innovation and relevance for research, policy and/or practice.

This call is open to all members of Share-Net. Become a member of the Share-Net hub in your country or region as relevant. Share-Net is currently organised in seven country hubs- Share-Net Bangladesh, Share-Net Burundi, Share-Net Jordan, and the Share-Net Netherlands, as well as the new hubs at Share-Net Columbia, Share-Net Ethiopia and Share-Net Burkina Faso.

Submit your abstract via this link.

Abstract submission deadline: Tuesday, 31st of August 2021

About the Annual Meeting: “Linking Research, Policy and Practice” (LRPP)- International edition: This meeting traditionally brings together policymakers, practitioners and researchers working on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) in international development. The focus lies on the work of young professionals who have recently submitted or are in the process of finishing research as part of a Master programme, postgraduate degree, research internship or research consultancy. In the past, the country hub of Share-Net Netherlands annually organised this meeting between young researchers and their members from Dutch universities, NGOs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For questions regarding this opportunity, write to: info@share-netinternational.org

As a part of the observance of Menstrual Hygiene Day on the 28th of May, Period Posse was looking back on the second year of the Period Posse Presents Webinar Series. It’s been a fantastic year!

Period Posse Presents Webinar Series is a monthly interactive series that brings together the experts in menstrual health and hygiene from across research, policy and practice to discuss key emerging issues. Speakers from different backgrounds including researchers, policymakers and practitioners were invited in the webinar.

Watch (or rewatch) all the webinars from Years 1 & 2 via the Columbia Public Health website.

The Period Posse Presents Webinar Series will be back in September 2021. Make sure to join their webinar mailing list here to stay tuned!

Photo by Vulvani – www.vulvani.com

In June, Share-Net Jordan and the Higher Population Council and Share-Net Jordan, in cooperation with the Global Refugee Health Research Network (University of Edinburgh) and the Protracted Crisis Research Center of the University of Western Scotland, organised a virtual symposium entitled “Endangered Lives: Examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well-being of refugee women in the Global South".

The symposium sought to provide a unique opportunity to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting consequences on the lives of women refugees living in protracted crises in Jordan, Bangladesh and Uganda.

The symposium brought together four short presentations aimed at highlighting the fragility of life in protracted crisis situations, with a focus on adolescent reproductive health needs, along with gender-based violence, critical diseases, poverty, hunger and vulnerability in their lives.

This symposium is part of the activities to mark World Refugee Day, which falls on June 20 of each year, and which focuses on the rights, needs and aspirations of refugees, and helps mobilize political will and resources where refugees not only survive, but thrive as well.

During the symposium, the results of two studies funded by the Protracted Crisis Research Center were launched.

The first study was The Project of Reproductive Health for Adolescent Refugees in the Camp - Qualitative Needs Assessment at a National Level. It was conducted by the Higher Population Council and Share-Net Jordan in cooperation with Dr. George Palatil, senior lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

The study aimed at developing a deep understanding of reproductive health risks and needs of adolescent refugees in Jordan in the context of forced displacement in addition to identifying the availability of services and obstacles to accessing sexual and reproductive health services. The most outstanding results of the study showed that the adolescent Syrian refugees living in Jordanian camps, especially males, lack awareness about available sexual and reproductive health services. As a result, they are not benefitting from the available services. However, it seems that reproductive health care for females in the refugee camp is relatively adequate, but in general, there is a lack of knowledge and a low level of awareness on many issues related to sexual and reproductive health.

The second study was about ‘Understanding and reducing the growing impact of gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic – A qualitative study of Syrian women and girls refugees in Jordan’. The study was prepared by the Higher Population Council and Share-Net Jordan in cooperation with Dr. Dina Sedhva, lecturer at the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, University of Western Scotland, and partners from Yarmouk University. The study aimed at developing an empirical understanding of the growing impact of sexual and gender-based violence on Syrian refugee women and girls in Jordan during the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure resulting from it, with the aim of limiting its impact on women refugees.

The most prominent results of the study showed that Syrian women living in Jordan face a difficult social life, and suffer from decline of basic needs for lack of money, lack of labor market, and low wages. Participants in the study expressed their frustration when leaving their country and the challenges they faced. They still live in small houses because of high prices of rent. They also explained that life was more beautiful in Syria before the war, but because of the lack of security, they prefer to stay in Jordan, especially since some of them are accustomed to life in Jordan and prefer it to life in Syria.

Domestic violence was quite apparent, according to responses from participants in the study who pointed out that the level of violence by husbands has increased greatly since their move to Jordan, and that most of the violence that women were exposed to was verbal, followed by physical violence, and only a few women faced sexual violence. Verbal and physical violence have increased significantly during the lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The novel coronavirus has impacted all of us. Besides the obvious health threats of COVID-19, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are also heavily affected by the global pandemic. How do we make sure that sexual well-being and SRHR continue, especially in a context of increased polarisation and growing conservatism? Just as we have had to adapt to new ways of living in the pandemic, we also have to adapt to communications that align with the current context.

This resource is an initiative from the Share-Net Netherlands’ Community of Practice (CoP) on SRHR Messaging. It aims to provide inspiration to Share-Net members and others working in the SRHR field on how to construct effective messaging on SRHR and COVID-19.

The first part of this document consists of information about the framing of messages. They provide recommendations for framing in general and specifically for the COVID-19 context, including how to avoid stigma and deal with myths and conspiracy theories. To make it more practical, it ends with a checklist that can help with the construction of effective messages on COVID-19 and SRHR. The second part describes SRHR challenges related to COVID-19. For each SRHR topic covered, some ideas are given regarding messaging.

Link to resource: https://share-net.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SN_SRHR_Covid19_Inspiration_for_Messaging.pdf

The EAC Gender Policy is a result of several decisions and directives of the Council of Ministers and the Sectoral Council on Gender geared to the harmonisation of efforts by Partner States in mainstreaming Gender in all EAC policies and programs and promoting the empowerment of women and men, boys and girls in the region.

In 2012, the EAC Secretariat with support from the Society for International Development (SID) and the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) commenced the process of developing the Policy. The development of this policy has navigated in various stages, both at regional and national levels.

This policy development process includes the literature review and data collection involved in drafting a comprehensive situational analysis on Gender in the EAC, formulation of the draft document, consultations, experts’ meetings, consideration and validation of the final draft. Numerous parties and individuals including Gender focused Civil Society Organisations, Gender Experts from the EAC Partner States, Consultants and other stakeholders of the respective Partner States have participated and shared invaluable contributions. The support received from the development partners most especially GIZ is highly appreciated. It should be mentioned that GIZ provided financial and technical support to enable the facilitation of the discussions to formulate the policy.

Follow this link to read the policy: https://www.eahealth.org/policy-publications/eac-gender-policy

The document can be downloaded by clicking here.

Between April and June, Share-Net Bangladesh has published four research papers. Studies for these knowledge products were conducted during 2020. Check out details on these publications below:

In light of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict on the 19th of June, a selection of Share-Net International members published a policy note on COVID-19, SRHR and Gender Equality.

On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, we raise awareness on Sexual Violence during Conflicts. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, this theme has become more important. Share-Net International therefore created an opportunity for ground level activists, researchers, health practitioners, NGO officers to collect data from a wide range of communities across 3 continents and 7 countries, demonstrating the need for bringing SRHR issues to the forefront during the pandemic. In many instances, these small action research projects shed light on a “shadow” endemic to the coronavirus pandemic whereby SRHR needs and rights are undermined, pushing especially women, young girls, and various vulnerable communities into further socio-economic and health insecurities.

In the light of the surfacing of these tangible data and stories, at the one year mark of the pandemic, pressing questions have appeared as to how the global community will respond and rebuild from the COVID-19 disaster, and how will national governments and global actors address the critical needs of SRHR service as part of COVID-19 relief and rebuilding efforts. In the discussions around “building back”, the structural inequalities that have appeared during these COVID times point towards the need to “build back better”. This policy paper therefore is an urgent appeal to all national and global stakeholders responding to the current state of pandemic to include SRHR at the core of crisis response and recovery.

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights are human rights and shall therefore be monitored, to limit the scale of impact of any emergency and instantly enforce pre-determined mitigation strategies.

Share-Net International therefore calls on international and national organisations and governments to build back better and address SRHR gaps from an inclusive, intersectional and gender-informed perspective.

Read more in the Policy Note.

MenEngage Alliance has published an interesting discussion paper on 3rd June 2021 titled ‘Contexts and Challenges for Gender Transformative Work with Men and Boys’, authored by Alan Greig, together with input from the staff of MenEngage Global Secretariat: Joni van de Sand; Laxman Belbase; Jennifer Rodriguez Bruno; Magaly Marques; Oswaldo Montoya; Sinead Nolan; and Tom Hornbook.

This discussion paper provides a fresh look at how masculinities form a common thread running through a multitude of global problems. It offers a wide-reaching analysis of the political, economic and socio-cultural forces confronting the world today. It brings renewed focus to the ways the world continues to be shaped in profound ways by ideas and attitudes around being a man – in personal behavior, institutional practice, and ideologies and it builds on a rich body of analysis advanced by feminist and gender and sexuality diverse social movements that helps explain how systemic gender injustice works – and how to challenge it.

Download the full paper via: https://www.share-netbangladesh.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Contexts-and-challenges-for-gender-transformative-work-with-men-and-boys-a-discussion-paper-english.pdf

The paper raises questions about how to contribute to ending patriarchal power, protecting human rights and achieving gender equality and social justice for all. It aims to make the reader gain a deeper understanding of historical and current trends impacting work with men and boys for gender justice, exploring new, critical reflections and important areas of discussion on how global issues relate to work to transform patriarchal masculinities.

Author: Alan Greig
Publisher: MenEngage Alliance
Date of publication: 03 Jun 2021
Source: The Alliance

To improve young people’s SRHR, three visualisation tools have been developed by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in partnership with the Her Choice Programme. The three tools can be used to assess Youth-friendliness of Health Services, Comprehensiveness of Sexuality Education and Girl-Friendliness of Schools. The development and evaluation of the use of these tools have been funded through two small grants of Share-Net International. These tools have been implemented in the Her Choice programme countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Youth-friendly Health Services (YFHS) tool:

This tool scores different dimensions of health services to assess whether they can be considered youth-friendly. The tool was developed to provide a participatory means of assessment, one which assumed little advance or specialised knowledge on the part of the users. In the case of the Her Choice programme, the latter was important for-

a) Her Choice partners, who were mostly more experienced in the fields of education and child protection, and less in the field of health care; and
b) local health services, who initially had little awareness of what might be required to increase their youth-friendliness.

The tool was thus designed as a springboard and to facilitate discussion of basic aspects of youth-friendly services. In this case, too, existing standards were drawn on as well as experiences of Her Choice partners themselves.

Download the English Toolkit here.
Download the French Toolkit here.

Comprehensiveness of Sexuality Education (CSE) tool:

This tool allows for scoring a CSE intervention along different dimensions with a view to assessing the degree to which an intervention can be considered ‘comprehensive’. The CSE assessment tool was introduced in the Her Choice programme in response to study findings regarding the SRHR-related training given to teachers and young people. It was found that the training offered was not sufficiently comprehensive, and that despite important improvements, young people’s knowledge still fell short in critical areas, for example, with regard to gender, sexual relations, and pregnancy. The CSE tool was developed drawing on findings of the analysis of existing CSE-related literature and guidelines.

Download the English Toolkit here.
Download the French Toolkit here.

Girl-friendliness of Schools (GFS) tool:

This tool scores different dimensions of schools to assess whether or not they can be considered ‘girl-friendly’. This tool was developed in view of the apparent lack of clarity among different relevant actors involved in Her Choice activities (e.g. school principals, students, community leaders, and NGOs) as to what constituted a girl-friendly school, and what kinds of school and community-based measures supported young women’s access to, participation and achievement in formal education. This tool was developed on the basis of existing literature and guidelines with Her Choice partners providing valuable input on possible locally relevant measures to improve girl friendliness of schools.

Download the English Toolkit here.
Download the French Toolkit here.

A Fact Sheet has been recently developed which illustrates the lessons on sustainability learned from a menstrual health programme ‘RITU’ in Bangladesh.

Project ‘RITU’, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangladesh is a joint initiative by Simavi, RedOrange, TNO, BNPS and DORP. The project was implemented in 8 upazilas of Netrokona district. The goal of this project was to ensure improved health and well-being, and social and economic participation of girls in Bangladesh by ensuring menstrual hygiene management.

Access all the materials available on the Ritu online website: https://rituonline.org/

The Ritu programme aimed to improve the menstrual health of girls between 10 and 15 years old in Bangladesh. The programme combined a set of direct interventions in schools and communities in Netrokona district, with national level advocacy and (social) media campaigns.

Two main interventions in schools were:

1. training of teachers to provide menstrual health education as part of their lesson plans; and
2. working with schools to access the Government budget to realise female-friendly toilets.

Headmasters, teachers, School Management Committees, students and Government Education Officers were all engaged in the implementation of the school activities and training organised, tools, and hand-over sessions were organised for them to continue the activities beyond the programme.

For the sustainability ground of RITU project, Dhaka University conducted a qualitative study with the support of Simavi and BNPS. This Fact Sheet is one of the tools to share the study findings and develop future strategy.

To download the Fact Sheet, click on this link: https://www.share-netbangladesh.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/20210419-Ritu_Study_factsheet.pdf