Uganda Diaries: Florence
Editor’s Note: This is part of More to Her Story’s ongoing Diary series, offering first-person accounts from young women living through conflict, repression, and change. The following Diary is written as part of our partnership with CouldYou Cup, an organization fighting to end period poverty in Africa, to mark Menstrual Health Week.
In Uganda, I think that stigma is still very present. When you’re on your period, you’re regarded as an ‘unclean’ person. Parents say that we are unclean, we are dirty, we are possessed, we are cursed. This thing runs deep — it’s in the culture. Religious leaders everywhere think menstruation is something ugly, something that’s not worth talking about.
I wish the government would not only supply condoms in schools — like at the university where I studied, where condoms were available everywhere, which is fine — but also provide us with pads.
Some girls in school do transactional sex. For example, in university, I reached a point where I had no pad. Like, the only thing I could do was go to a boyfriend to give me a pad.
Girls are suffering in universities just because people think they’re old enough. But they can’t come out and say it. Sometimes they fear. Even their parents think they are big enough, so they don’t provide. You see? So these girls end up doing transactional sex for pads. I didn’t have any option. That was the last resort for me.
Sometimes, when you call home — you call your mother — “Mom, I need something to eat.” Imagine a parent who cannot even give you something to eat. Now imagine asking for a pad.
I wish I could change people’s mindsets — how they see certain things and how they handle them. How I wish I could do that. How I wish I had the energy to change leaders’ minds towards menstruation, to change everyone’s thinking about menstruation — and to provide them with menstrual cups.
That’s what I think my superpower should be: changing people’s minds. That’s why I’m teaching girls. I believe I can change everyone’s life for the better.