8 Mar 2013

GENEVA / WATER AND SANITATION

Marking International Women's Day, a UN body today warned that hundreds of millions of women and girls do not have access to safe menstrual hygiene products, endangering their health, and putting their livelihoods and education at risk. CH UNTV

Posted at: March 8, 2013 5:24 pm

Duration: 01:59

Available in: SD

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STORY: GENEVA / WATER AND SANITATION
TRT: 1.59
SOURCE: CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 8 MARCH 2013, GENEVA

SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2011, PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters in Geneva

8 MARCH 2013, GENEVA

2. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Archana Patkar, Programme Manager, WSSCC:
"Access to commercial products is extremely limited. What girls and women do then, is use whatever's possible. And this can include anything including fabric in the home, if that's not available, sometimes it even extends to really unsafe, unhygienic materials such as sand, even ash, straw and leaves."

3. Cutaway, meeting on "Celebrating Womanhood."

4. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Archana Patkar, Programme Manager, WSSCC: 
"The lack of information coupled with the stigma and the shame, is leading to very poor hygiene- not enough washing, using materials way too long without changing - also because there are no spaces to change, and the result of that is really a whole string of infections, and let's not forget also the pain- which affects 81% of menstruating women globally."

5. Cutaway, meeting on "Celebrating Womanhood."

6. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Archana Patkar, Programme Manager, WSSCC: 
"Everyone is taught it's something shameful. You need to manage it in an invisible way, make sure nobody else knows, that you're bleeding during your menstruation. And if you do that, well then you're a woman who can manage her own womanly needs with dignity throughout your life."

FILE – 2011, INDIA

7. Various, girls at school being asked questions by social workers, as part of  the Nirmal Bharat Yatra Campaign 2012

STORYLINE:

The Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) said Friday, that menstrual hygiene management is not just a sanitation and hygiene issue, but a development issue, and urged UN organizations and aid agencies to break the silence surrounding menstruation as a means to empowering women.

Celebrating Womanhood, a conference hosted by the WSSCC in Geneva, brought together policy experts, health professionals, and academics, and examined how poor education, lack of access to sanitary napkins and pain relief, and inadequate washing facilities, had a far reaching impact on education, work, and health.

WSSCC pointed to research in India showing that only 12% of girls and women have access to and use sanitary napkins; that many have a poor understanding of menstrual hygiene; and that 23% of girls drop out of school after puberty.

Archana Patkar, programme manager at WSSCC, says that lack of knowledge of the physiological process gives way to cultural taboos, and that shame and silence associated with menstruation leads to a conspicuous lack of access to products and facilities at workplaces, schools, and community centres.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Archana Patkar, Programme Manager, WSSCC: 
"The lack of information coupled with the stigma and the shame, is leading to very poor hygiene-- not enough washing, using materials way too long without changing-- also because there are no spaces to change, and the result of that is really a whole string of infections, and let's not forget also the pain-- which affects 81% of menstruating women globally."

WSCC emphasized that ignoring menstrual hygiene and management may prevent the Millennium Development Goals from being reached by 2015.

Filed under 03.05.00 - WATER 10. - HEALTH 14.01.00 - ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN.