Hygiene practices of adolescents during menstruation are of paramount importance because hygiene impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of the individual. Adolescent girls face many issues and challenges, especially of school going age group. These challenges may be related to safety, hygiene, and myths related to menstruation that include lack of adequate knowledge before menarche, pubertal changes, and lack of support from the schools and family to manage issues related to menstruation. Dr. Shameema Asif, Specialist OB&G of Thumbay University Hospital, Ajman, UAE delivered an interactive session for the girls’ students of East Point Indian International School Ajman on 30th May 2022. Around 250 students participated in the event.
Dr. Shameema Asif Addressing the audience of East Point Indian International School on 30th May 2022.
The objectives of this session were to alleviate the anxiety associated with it and to educate the school-going age girls about the importance of having healthy menstruation to address the challenges faced by them. Students of the MPH program with support from Dr. Jayakumary Muttappallymyalil, Chairperson of the Community Engagement Committee and Dr. Anusha Sreejith, member of the Community Engagement Committee too had an interactive health education session with the enthusiastic girls. Prof Jayadevan Sreedharan, in his welcome address stressed on the importance of addressing this area and requested the students to actively participate to clear any misconceptions. Prof. Shatha Al Sharbathi actively participated in clarifying the myths of the students.
Dr. Abdurrahman Chikaire Umar, Dr. Latifa Nabeel Mohamed Alsaad, Dr. Ethel Aputerebuno Akolaa and Dr. Ewan Thomas Ambanattu, students of the MPH program organized the event and evaluated the effectiveness of the program and the process of the activity.
About 97% of the students had a high to very high opinion about the appropriateness of the topic. Most of the students had a high opinion about the methodology and mode of presentation, and they viewed that the information from the health education session had contributed to their knowledge. A few students suggested that the same topic must be given for the boys also. Some students had proposed a session on mental health.
The process evaluation by the Teachers of the school was marked very high regarding the sufficiency of the resources, implementation of the activates as planned, satisfaction of the participants regarding the session, and involvement of the potential participants. Most of them rated this session as an important one. They also suggested few topics like awareness of the menstrual cycle to boys, mental health, and dental health.
Prof. Jayadevan Sreedharan, Program Director of the MPH program explained that organizing such events will help the MPH students to attain competencies such as Evidence-based Approaches to Public Health, Planning & Management to Promote Health, Leadership, Communication, Interprofessional Practice, and Systems Thinking. College of Medicine encourages and supports students to organize and conduct community engagement activities to achieve these competencies.
Congratulating the students and their faculty co-ordinators, Dean Prof. Manda Venkatramana said “Creating awareness and imparting coping skills on an important topic among school going student’s is imperative to improve the quality of life of the student community. Social accountability is one of our core values which we instil among students”.