We're celebrating International Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28 (#mhd2017) which is a time to focus on the difficulties faced by adolescent girls in poor countries when their periods start.

This year's theme is 'Education on menstruation changes everything', highlighting the fact that all too often periods are a taboo subject in many cultures, shrouded in secrecy and silence. For example, in India, only 1 out of 2 girls know about menstruation before their first period, and in Tanzania and Ethiopia, only 1 out of 4 girls know about it. 

This situation means that even though menstruation is a normal biological process, it's easy for taboos and misunderstanding to proliferate, causing girls even more misery. That's certainly what we found when we talked to girls in faith schools in Uganda in 2016. Read about our Uganda workshops here. 

Here are some links to useful resources:

• Menstrual Hygiene Day is a global platform that brings together non-profits, government agencies, the private sector, the media and individuals to promote menstrual hygiene management (MHM).
• 'Why a monthly period is especially hard for millions of girls and women around the world' – an article on the difficulties faced by girls and women fleeing conflict and living in refugee camps and settlements.
• Menstrual hygiene day quiz: This short, fun quiz has been developed by IRC: test your knowledge!
• Menstrual Hygiene Matters, developed by WaterAid, is an essential resource for anyone working to improve menstrual hygiene for women and girls in lower and middle-income countries. 
• The WinS4Girls E-Course is aimed at strengthening the capacity of WASH practitioners and policymakers in this field. It was designed by Emory University and UNICEF as part of the 14-country UNICEF project funded by the Government of Canada.

The Guardian newspaper has a very interesting about how Paraguay became the only country to achieve the Millennium Development Goal water goal for rural populations.

The MDG target was to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. Paraguay not only achieved it but exceeded it, with more than 94% of its rural population now having access to safe water, compared with 51.6% in 2000, more than any other country.

One of the main reasons Paraguay succeeded where so many have failed is because its politicians asked the right questions from the start and they took a long-term view. According to the article, 'from the beginning, the key to Paraguay’s approach was the focus on sustainability'. The World Bank's Maria Angelica] Sotomayor said: “They gave it a lot of attention, thinking about how you can construct a system but who will operate it and how will you manage it? Who is responsible in a rural area if a hand pump breaks? They were asking the right questions.” 

Paraguay also placed its sanitation and water agency within the Department of Health, helping ensure the issue as a public health matter. In 2007, Paraguay also recognised in law access to sufficient and quality water as a human right, three years before the right to water and sanitation was recognised by the UN