Eastern Equatoria Celebrates Menstrual Hygiene Day

The WASH UNITED declared the 28^th May as the menstrual hygiene Day and the world’s First celebration was on the 28th of May 2014. The Eastern Equatoria State Ministry of Education in Youth and Sports in collaboration with SNV-South Sudan Joined the Globe in organizing for the celebration of this important event day in Torit. This year’s theme was: “Break the Bloody Taboos & Let’s Start the Conversation about Menstruation.”

In my thoughts: Sexual Intercourse & South Sudan

It is no secret that most of the youth and adults in South Sudan are practicing sexual intercourse, and most of the time unprotected. We South Sudanese usually refuse to talk about any sexual matters with our children and that’s one of the reasons why the rate of young unmarried child mothers, child fathers and people who are living with HIV according to the recent research presented is quite high; because they have very little knowledge of the many consequences of sexual intercourse. We South Sudanese believe that such sensitive information a person is supposed to know, simply understand and should go by because it is instilled in his/her manners, culture and ethics. With that being said, even our schools refuse to explain to students in detail what the consequences of a sexual intercourse are, which includes producing a child, creating bigger responsibility, disappointment if before marriage and finally contracting many sexual transmitted infections (STI) and of course the incurable Lucifer HIV.

A question has been itching my brains for a while now, are we trying to say that we would rather deal with the consequences instead of preventing them? If not where are the HIV prevention campaigns? Why are you parents shy of talking to your children and educating them about what is most likely to happen after having sexual relations? Why are our schools not putting everything there is for children to know about sex in their syllabus? Because if we really wanted to prevent that’s where our focus would be rather than trying to help when it’s already too late. The earlier a person is educated the lower the risks become, other worlds are currently ahead of us because they most importantly do not lie to themselves. We tend to lie to ourselves and convince ourselves that our children, sisters, brothers, aunties, relatives, friends etc… are not sexually active, is that why we are not educating ourselves about the importance of protection? And if we are, are we doing our best to reach all parts of the nation? It’s as simple as driving a car, if you don’t wear the seatbelt to protect yourself, if an accident occurs, there will be damage and consequences that will affect you forever as a result of you not wearing that seatbelt.

Cultures, traditions, mindsets and even religion evolve, why you ask? Because as new generations are born they come with more open minds, they come and want to modernize the lifestyles of the old generations. The generation we live in today has evolved to where it’s becoming acceptable to do certain things in ways our grandparents would have never done, let’s not lie to ourselves by telling ourselves that cultures, manners, ethics, mindsets etc… are still the same because they absolutely aren’t. We must put all that we need to know in our books, billboards, stickers, events, conferences, hospitals etc… Create as much awareness as possible to save a future, & also a life.