Changing attitudes and norms through WASH in Papua New Guinean schools

“As a student boy, I help inform boys not to tease girls, but to respect them as menstruation is natural. Through menstruation, we are all born.” A male student expresses is solidarity and support for girls, his fellow students at a school in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea (Live & Learn Environmental Education Papua New Guinea)

This young man is among a cohort of more than 5,000 students from 15 primary schools across New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, where a WASH in Schools (WinS) program is reducing longstanding stigmas and shifting harmful attitudes towards menstruation.

In Papua New Guinea, menstruation has long been a taboo topic that would never be discussed openly in society. In schools, this has meant that girls’ and women’s menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) needs have often been neglected, significantly limiting their ability to participate in school settings on a monthly basis.

But that has started to change since Water for Women partners Plan International and Live & Learn Environmental Education began implementing the WinS program in New Ireland Province to bolster teachers’ knowledge and skills in educating students on essential water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices, including a specific focus on MHH.

Supported by the Australian Government through its Water for Women project, Plan and Live & Learn's WinS program has so far engaged 235 teachers from 10 schools. Having participated in the WinS training. these teachers are now supporting a collective 5,138 students to develop healthy WASH life-skills, including positive attitudes towards menstrual health and hygiene, and fostering a stigma-free environment.

Teachers have observed the behaviour of students, particularly boys, changing with the increased classes on health hygiene: “It has driven the confidence of students to take pride, and has also contributed in gender participation between students, especially the boys,” said Mr Noah Benson, Senior Teacher at Maoim Primary School. “The students learn about menstrual hygiene, health and other hygiene behaviours in school. It has contributed also academically to the achievement of students in the school. The programs that we run here in school also influences the community at large… They (students) become agents of change.”

Additional teaching materials and guides have also been developed through the WinS program to further support teachers and schools. As a result, Health Hygiene is now taught three times a week in these schools and assessed as a core subject.

The WinS program is being delivered as part of Water for Women’s Resilient WASH in the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea project. This project is supporting the local government in Kavieng District, New Ireland Province, and Northern Region, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, to deliver safe, secure, sustainable, and inclusive WASH services for these rural communities.

Read our #MHDay2022 Insight: 

The hard and soft of committing to menstrual health and hygiene in WASH