The Wings of Hope

The cost of bleeding every month!   #We of the bleeding vagina ‪#‎MenstruationMatters ‪ #‎MHD15, was one of the posts by one of my Facebook friends this morning.

This girl can be brave. Is she announcing her next red?  I pondered. Often, when the ‘red zone’ pops around, it’s not something we can brag about. You wouldn’t want anyone to know that it’s ‘your’ time of the month.  But Hey, isn’t this the reason we are different from the Men? 

Never mind that the post came while I was listening to an informative  session  on Women’s Sexual and Reproductive health issues in Uganda by Annet Kyarimpa, from Reproductive Health Uganda.  How handy, I wish my Facebook friend was in the same room with me at the time. 

Anyway, the men in this room could have thought that growing up as a girl in Uganda or being a mother is as hard as attempting to beat Usain Bolt in a 100 meter race. Isn’t it such a task? It already sounded like a full time job reading from stories shared by both Annet and earlier by her colleague James Tumusiime. 

My mind was drawn to a young girl who, for purposes of today’s learning, we shall call Rose, going through the agony of being raped by her step father, the trauma of carrying an unwanted pregnancy and the pain of rejection. Rose is treated as an outcast in her home, in her family and in the community.  But what’s Rose’s crime?  

She is a girl.  A girl who is not emotionally ready for sexual encounters, a girl who is not prepared for Marriage , a girl who has no access to health services, a baby who would carry another baby in her unripe womb, a girl who is driven into motherhood by ignorance and poverty.  

Rose would dread ‘that time of the month,’ she would be told to sit in the sand for seven days so that her bleed is absorbed.  She would put together a few leaves and chicken feather to protect herself from showing off the girlhood dilemma. 

It is already a painful experience growing up as a girl. Her future would be doomed if Rose is forced into marriage.  

Rose needs hope, she needs empowerment and she needs to be able to soar high above the frustrations of life.