Menstrual health and hygiene management should be treated as a social-economic problem with the implication for sustainable health and environment action. Pilot study by Dr. Omoye Akhagba aims to find out the living conditions of refugees in the Polish camps and how they maintain their menstrual hygiene while these camps.  Listen to the podcast “Menstruation poverty in Polish refugee camps” with Dr. Omoye Akhagba, hosted by a Collegium Civitas student, Khushi Dhomne.

Menstrual poverty is on the rise among displaced women who have been forced to live outside of their home countries as a result of war and economic poverty experience even worse menstrual health conditions. In a report by UNICEF (2019), displaced women face various challenging hygienic conditions while living in the camps due to lack of adequate and accessible facilities that support menstrual hygiene for women and young girls. As reported by Concern Worldwide (2018), Syrian refugee women living in Lebanon often prioritise their demand for basic human needs such as food and shelter because they considered these issues as the means of survival while living the camps and as result, menstrual hygiene is not valued as the main issue they need at the time of stay in the host country. In addition, menstrual hygiene in these camps is often unattainable due to long lines to the toilet, no privacy to the toilet doors as they are usually without locks, and unhygienic toilet-water shortages and experienced sexual and gender-based violence.

The podcast is available at:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7r8i3O11alHAAeBdyFVYWZ?si=ZOaJuVkxToaq0ql00fxuZA&nd=1