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

Tomorrow, on March 22 – World Water Day 2017, Pope Francis is taking part in a Vatican event aimed at inspiring a global conversation on how the world values and understands its single most precious resource: water.

The Pope will make a live address from the Vatican tomorrow morning in which he will call for action on water. Afterwards 400 thought leaders from around the world will convene at WATERSHED to begin an unprecedented dialogue around the value and values of water.

The conference is co-hosted by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture and the Club of Rome. Other partners include Circle of Blue, with input from the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Environment. To find out more, click here for the programme.

Last month, the Pope met participants in a conference on the human right to water, organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He told participants that questions concerning the right to water were not marginal, but basic and pressing.  Basic, because where there is water there is life, and pressing, because our common home needs to be protected.

An important new report has highlighted how humanitarian agencies are failing women refugees, particularly Syrian women, by ignoring their faith, cultural and gender needs.

The report, entitled More than Half (a reference to the fact that 52.8% of refugees, internally displaced people and those seeking asylum are female), was launched yesterday by our partner Global One.

It is the result of in-depth interviews with nearly 1,000 Syrian women refugees in Lebanon, carried out by a consortium of partners led by Global One, said Dr Husna Ahmad, CEO of Global One.

The report found that women and girls are particularly affected by lack of access to water and sanitation. As the main care givers, women often compromised their own hygiene needs to ensure their children had enough water. Lack of lights or locks on the communal toilet doors in refugee camps put women and girls at risk of harassment or rape.

The report said humanitarian organisations caring for refugees routinely fail to take into account the specific needs of women and girls such as their menstrual cycle. For example, 70% of the women questioned had no access to underwear and 73% sometimes or never had access to menstrual products.

Equally important, humanitarian agencies also failed to appreciate refugees' faith needs. "Humanitarian efforts are failing to address women as women but also as Muslim women," said Terri Harris of Global One. "So much has been taken from them by this conflict, we must not rob them of their identity."

Speaking at the launch, Helen Stawski of Islamic Relief said: "Faith provides people with resilience, with hope. Faith is a psychological buffer and a social network. It helps people form relationships, it is integral to people's resilience and dignity."

Faith in Water is excited to be taking part in JustWater 2017, an initiative launched by cathedrals and churches on four continents to raise awareness and activism about water.

They include St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa; St Paul's Cathedral in London, UK; St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia; and Trinity Church Wall Street in New York, USA.

The JustWater programme aims to draw attention to the issues around water – whether these challenges are flooding, drought, rising tides or access to fresh water and sanitation. Major events are scheduled to coincide with the season of Lent and around UN World Water Day on 22 March to support social justice efforts on water.

Faith in Water is taking part in Water of Life? Creation, Culture and the River Thames on March 23 in St Paul’s Cathedral, London. This large public event is the flagship event for the JustWater programme in the UK and will host a wide range of performances, speakers and organisations.

The Very Revd David Ison, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral London, said 'How we deal with water shows how much we value one another. The church working around the world in partnership, to share resources and raise awareness of water-related issues, is a sign of how humanity can achieve together for the benefit of all what we cannot do on our own.'

The JustWater2017.org website is an open resource to help equip community and church leaders as advocates for water justice. Events and outcomes from the project will be highlighted on the website as well as on social media using the hashtag #justwater17.

The president made it a priority in his election campaign and now the First Lady has presided over the launch of a nationwide initiative calling on all the citizens to get involved. One of the country's leading singers, Sana Bob, has even composed a song about it.

​The country is Burkina Faso and the campaign focuses on sanitation. The aim is to mobilise the entire country to put an end to open defecation and give everyone access to decent sanitation facilities.

Around 9.3 million people still defecate in the open on a daily basis and 70% of hospital beds are taken by people suffering from illnesses caused by a lack of sanitation. Every day 4.8 million women risk their safety, dignity and health because they are forced to hide in the bush to relieve themselves.

The people's campaign for toilets, Fasotoilettes 2017, has been initiated by IRC Burkina Faso in collaboration with the General Directorate for Sanitation of the Ministry for Water and Sanitation, the NGOs WaterAid and Eau Vive International and the Foundation Kim. 

First lady Sika Kabore launched the campaign, saying, 'Relieving oneself is a basic need of all human beings… I am deeply disturbed when I think of all the women who have to wait until nightfall to do what is ultimately natural.'

​For more information on Burkino Faso's national campaign, visit Sanitation Updates. 

Faith in Water was delighted to take part in both the Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) conference, convened by UNICEF and Columbia University in New York this month, and the MHM in Ten meeting the following day. 

As well as having a poster submission accepted for the MHM conference we also attended the event in person; hundreds more people from around the world took part in the live virtual conference. 

You can find our poster, which outlined our engagement of faith schools and faith leaders in Uganda earlier this year, on the WASH in Schools' Mapping website here. 

We also attended the next day's MHM in Ten meeting to look at how to advance the MHM agenda in schools. Both days were engaging, challenging and uplifting. While there is much to be achieved in moving forward the MHM agenda, it was inspiring to hear of all the initiatives, studies and campaigns launched in this area. Faith in Water is playing its part by engaging faith groups to view menstrual health as critical for girls' health, education and wellbeing.

The report of the third MHM in Ten meeting, held in October 2016, has been released. Read the full report: MHM in Ten: Advancing the MHM Agenda in Schools. 

It's one of the biggest challenges facing anyone working in water and sanitation. No matter how many toilets or hand washing stations you build, they will be a monumental waste of money if people don't use them. 

India is trying to grapple with this problem. It has more open defecators than any other country in the world. Over the last few decades the government has implemented national programmes to change this, including the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), a national programme launched in 2014 with the aim of eliminating open defecation by 2019.

However, the demand for sanitation – i.e. a genuine demand for toilets and actual use of those toilets – has not been encouraging.

​In September, a number of experts met in Delhi to discuss the reasons for this and what can be done to bring about lasting behaviour change. For a longer report of the meeting, visit the article on Sanitation Updates. However, here are a few key lessons.

• It is just as important to understand what doesn’t work, as well as to understand what behaviour change interventions do work.
• Actual change in behaviour and practice in communities takes time. Interventions have to be designed to be delivered over a longer time with relevant and progressive messaging.
• Put communities first. Every community is different. Make sure you understand their context.
• The lack of land tenure security, cramped and smelly toilets can affect the adoption of hygienic behaviour.
• Low aspirations and negative self-perception, reinforced by sanitation campaigns focusing on shame and disgust, may discourage the poor to construct toilets.  
• Actions that reinforce communities’ pride in their way of life and cultural habits make them more open towards behaviour change messages.
• Another positive trigger is exposure to properly designed, well-functioning and clean toilet facilities in health care facilities, schools, bus/train stations etc. Toilets are more likely to be used if there is good light, space and ventilation, easy access to water and simple pit cleaning technology. 
• Children have a key role to play in behaviour change. Dettol's Swachhata Ki Paathshala campaign incorporates sanitation messaging into the school curriculum in different regional languages. 
• Faith-based leaders have been instrumental in influencing a large section of the community to adopt hygienic behaviour and toilets, according to the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance; 99% of Indians belong to a faith. The Alliance plans to start a ‘Swachhata Kranti’ (Clean Revolution).
• Targeting only women will not solve India’s sanitation problems. The focus should be all household members, including men.

We are delighted to announce that The Nicest Job in Britain has chosen Faith in Water for its annual philanthropy programme. This is a nationwide initiative designed to help 40 charities in the UK – and Faith in Water is incredibly honoured to have been chosen out of hundreds of applications.

The Nicest Job has built a showcase platform for Britain's charities, demonstrating the great people that work for them, the environments they operate in and the challenges they face.

We're really excited about the prospect of hosting the National Philanthropy Manager and the chance to get a fresh perspective on what we're doing as well as some great publicity about our work.

Thank you for choosing us, Nicest Job!

When it comes to dealing with their periods, the three biggest concerns for girls in Uganda are: 'Can't afford sanitary products'; 'Fear that boys will make fun of me'; and 'Lack of menstrual health education'. But the state of school toilets was also a major issue, with 62% of girls questioned saying they were too dirty, too crowded and lacked water for washing.
 
These are some of the results of Faith in Water's consultations on menstrual health with faith groups in Uganda. Although the Ugandan government and other NGOs have been working to push menstrual hygiene management higher up the agenda for schools, this is the first time that faith groups have been engaged on this issue.
 
Faith in Water is developing a toolkit for faith schools on how to help girls manage menstruation safely and with dignity – important given the mounting research that shows girls often miss school during their periods, with potentially devastating impact on their education and future life chances.
 
We held nine workshops in April 2016 to find out what girls' and schools' challenges were, and to discuss the importance of good menstrual health teaching to girls' education. We were delighted with the response from faith leaders, faith women's groups, heads and teachers of faith schools, who all agreed this was a serious issue that needed to be taken seriously by faith groups (who are involved in over half of schools in Uganda).
 
As Rev Canon Diana Nkesiga said it was time to let go of outdated ideas about stigma and shame: 'Church schools should be exemplary places of teaching dignity and hygiene.' 
 
Balinda Sirag, of the Uganda Muslim Youth Assembly, said: 'Before I got involved, I used to think this issue is not important. Now I know it is very, very important. We must break the silence on menstruation and keep girls in school.'
 
We were also delighted by the response of Angela Nakafeero, Gender Techical Adviser with the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports, who said of Faith in Water's planned toolkit for faith schools: 'We are looking forward to this toolkit for religious schools. It is very exciting for us. We feel that this contribution will complement some of our interventions.'
 
To read the full report, including findings of girls' experiences of menstruation and challenges facing schools, download it here.