GLOBAL health-care organisation, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Jamaica is urging the Jamaican Government to prioritise menstrual health as a comprehensive public health issue, as it seeks to increase awareness around period poverty and other related issues facing women.

According to Dr Kevin Harvey, Caribbean regional director for AHF and head of the School of Public Health and Health Technology at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), “Menstrual health is a public health and human rights issue that, if addressed in a holistic manner, can enable the progress of sustainable development in Jamaica and improve the well-being of our women, girls, and the men who support them.”

Dr Harvey’s comments come ahead of today’s World Menstrual Hygiene Day celebration, a global effort aimed at, among other things, ending period poverty — a condition affecting millions of women and girls worldwide.

Period poverty refers to the limited access that many women have to menstrual hygiene products, menstrual education, and proper water sanitation and hygiene facilities.

In addressing these menstrual health challenges AHF Jamaica has donated over 100,000 sanitary hygiene products to women and girls in need across the island. However, the organisation acknowledges that product distribution alone is insufficient as a multilateral issue like menstrual health requires institutional and structural intervention, research, and consistent efforts to bridge the gap between social and structural determinants and their impact on women and girls.

“To complicate matters,” says Harvey, “the socio-economic impacts of external shocks such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have worsened menstrual health challenges, especially for lower-income families and female-headed households which often have to choose between buying food or menstrual hygiene products.”

AHF Jamaica has therefore targeted menstrual health as a holistic public health matter, addressing limited access to period products, menstrual education, adequate sanitation and water facilities, and combating stigma and cultural norms.

The organisation has also emphasised the importance of training health-care workers in menstrual disorders and gender-responsive approaches to understanding the needs and requirements of those affected.

With Jamaica currently in the season of constitutional reform, AHF Jamaica sees an opportunity to engage in discussions about menstrual leave as a tool of empowerment for positive changes in women’s menstrual health.

The organisation remains dedicated to advocating for menstrual health and achieving menstrual equity. By prioritising a holistic approach and addressing the multifaceted challenges associated with menstrual health, AHF Jamaica believes that period poverty and other related menstrual hygiene challenges can be eradicated by 2030.