THE RED STORY

Oblivion is a problem that is faced by two types of people. One is a group of people who are deliberately kept in the dark about a specific thing, and the other is those who do not take responsibility to know about it. The second group is a danger to humanity in my opinion, and may burn the world down because of a silly thing such as pressing the “Red button” where it says DO NOT.

I remember when I was in my boyhood, in primary school, during our Monday or Friday parades, we would have a hygiene session with the class teachers — more like periodic scrutiny, to speak about health and hygiene. We would be given a lecture on how to keep our nails and the follicles on our heads short, our shoes as black as some of their hearts and our uniform clean and sharp. Sounds like a military school doesn’t it?

In between the lecture and the chastizing that some would receive for having let themselves go (having long, dirty or red painted nails, dirty shirt collars and dusty shoes ), the male teacher would mention in a hushed down and sarcastic tone that the girls were talking about girl stuff — ‘maneno ya wasichana’ and that was that. Between scanning ourselves for any misdemeanours and the notion that the teacher was ‘always right’ no one would pick this up as a red flag, but we all knew they were hiding something.

Years later, I heard a story from a friend about how she was seated in class going about her business when her classmates began pointing at her dress. This was quickly followed by muffles of curiosity coupled with a lot of gossip. Some blatantly burst into sarcastic sighs and the boys around her even laughed. Sure, they were young and a little dumb but it hurt all the same.

She stormed out of the room leaving a red trail of droplets behind. Luckily, this happened during a lesson where a female teacher was in charge and she, understanding the situation, ran after her. Even more shocking that after the incident, no one explained what had happened. In fact, it seemed that the grown-ups were shying away from it according to this friend of mine.

Suddenly the science of menstruation became more real to me. The differences between men and women had just moved beyond the physical and cute behaviours. I had no idea how to deal with this realisation. Well, fate had it that like a reverse domino effect, matters around menstrual hygiene would align for me, one by one for me. I felt my IQ reduce with every unravelling detail.

Soon I found out that the secret meetings that the girls in my primary school were pulled aside for were not those of a secret cabal plotting about how girls would take over the world, but they were about cleanliness and this involved menstrual hygiene — Somehow, they have ended up taking over either way.

Eventually, my fate ended up colliding with passionate young women who opened my eyes to the reality that it was not just about hygiene but a matter of life and future for many. Besides the awareness gap that exists in society, more is a miss in this area. Period shaming and the lack of access to sanitary pads plague young girls and women, especially in Africa.

Now I find myself working to help get Kenya get past this creeping crisis through TheUs4Her Foundation. From community-based pad drives and talks to strategic data-based approaches, we try and use what we have to create change. So the story continues on the ground as I get to understand more to red-ifine the reality riddled with hopelessness for many.