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Challenging menstrual stigma through our Girls Support Groups

  • Emeli Hanson
  • Sep 18
  • 4 min read

This blog post shares the findings of research undertaken by Emeli Hanson, a University of Sheffield student who completed a research placement with Kids Club Kampala in June 2024. 


Through centering the lived experiences of adolescent girls, this study aimed to understand how social, cultural, economic and environmental factors contribute to menstrual stigma in resource-poor communities. Emeli carried out focus groups and interviews with girls living in Kasubi, Wakiso, and Katanga about their complex experiences of menstrual health management, seeking to understand how Kids Club Kampala’s Girls Support Groups support them through this.


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Menstrual stigma  


Menstrual stigma is a unique challenge in the lives of adolescent girls in resource-poor communities. The stigmatisation of menstruation as ‘something you have to hide’ poses risks to both the psychological and physical health of girls, as well as exposing them to social discrimination. 


In Uganda, female roles have traditionally been bound to reproductive and domestic labour (Farago, Eggum-Wilkens and Zhang, 2021). Due to the cultural association of menstruation with marriage and childbirth, open conversations have been silenced for fear of what periods symbolise for adolescent girls (Maharaj and Winkler, 2020). The stigmatisation of menstruation as ‘dirty’ has increased negative attitudes about periods. The physical environment of Kampala’s slums has also contributed to this taboo.



Girls Support Groups


Kids Club Kampala’s Girls Support Groups take place every Saturday across 10 locations in and around Kampala. They provide girls aged 12-17 with safe spaces in their communities to access peer support, free period products and counselling sessions. 


Group counselling sessions focus on discussing issues such as menstruation, early and forced marriage, teenage pregnancy, health, sex education, and personal security, as well as many other issues. Individual counselling is also available for girls who have been abused, neglected or need additional support in any way. So far in 2025, more than 560 girls have attended Kids Club Kampala’s Girls Support Groups.


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Research findings


The research findings fell under 3 key themes: communicating about menstruation; responsibilities of womanhood; and environmental and economic hardship.


Communicating about menstruation

Within the research, girls universally expressed that they are expected to conceal their periods. This social expectation prevents open conversations and triggers peer abuse towards girls who aren’t able to do this. Girls feel uncomfortable speaking to their parents about menstruation, due to a lack of normalisation, and low financial priority. One girl said:

“I don’t tell my mum, I suffer alone”.

Furthermore, adolescent girls are ashamed to talk to boys about periods, due to potential abuse. For girls who attend school, this negatively impacts their attendance. 


Kids Club Kampala’s Girls Support Groups challenge this stigma, by providing a space for girls to discuss periods safe from community abuse. Through creating a sisterhood, the Girls Support Groups challenge menstrual shame and barriers to social support.


Responsibilities of womanhood

Periods are perceived to symbolise womanhood and resulting expectations of sexual maturity. Therefore, pregnancy is a common menstruation-related concern for adolescent girls. On the one hand, this is due to male sexual advances. On the other hand, this fear can be attributed to the comparability between menstrual symptoms and those of pregnancy or abortion. 


Kids Club Kampala’s counselling sessions on sexual abstinence, HIV prevention, and male-related behaviour positively impact girls’ abilities to manage menstruation-related responsibilities. The words of Maria* echo this:

“if we didn’t have such help we would’ve been destroyed by the community”.

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Environmental and economic hardship

Menstruation makes women and girls disproportionately vulnerable in contexts of poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). In Katanga, most girls have no access to a private toilet, get infections from poor hygiene, and have no safe place to dispose of their pads. Overall, contributing to the taboo around menstruation as ‘dirty’. In the words of Annie*:

“They (the community) can abuse you, saying you are unclean.”

In Wakiso, multiple-occupancy rooms and a lack of single-sex spaces prevent girls from being able to hide their periods. This results in girls entering unsafe locations to change their period pads  exposing them to sexual harm. In both instances, the physical environment negatively impacts the wellbeing of girls.


Economic hardship prevents girls from regularly accessing disposable pads  the preferred method of menstrual concealment. Without them, girls use unsanitary materials; avoid leaving the house; or in some instances, seek transactional sex to buy disposable period pads. In turn, leading to social isolation and discrimination, and negatively affecting physical and mental wellbeing. 


To address these environmental and economic challenges, Kids Club Kampala provides girls with safe spaces every Saturday and free period pads on a monthly basis. However, the research found that girls often share their free period products with their mothers and sisters due to economic hardship, meaning they don’t always have enough period products to last throughout the month.


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*Names have been changed


Conclusion


Overall, the research findings show that Kids Club Kampala is helping to protect adolescent girls from the social, sexual, and physical harms resulting from menstrual stigma. Kids Club Kampala’s Girls Support Groups play a vital role in improving menstrual management practices and challenging the stigma within communities.



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