Menstrual Health and Hygiene and Adolescent Pregnancy in the Rorya District: A Case Study of Two Health Education Interventions in Rural Tanzania
type: CreativeWork
description: In 2009, I volunteered in Shirati, a rural community in the Rorya District of the Mara Region of Tanzania. Over the next several years, I made numerous visits and developed strong ties to Shirati. Through discussions with local health and education professionals I became aware of the negative consequences of insufficient menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) and adolescent pregnancy for school-aged girls. In 2019, I turned these concerns into praxis and founded the Gender Respect Project at a primary school run by a non-governmental organization called REACH Shirati. Sparked by my work experience and the professional relationships built over a decade, I started a PhD project in 2020 that developed into a case study about two health education interventions with MHH education in the Rorya District: my own Gender Respect Project and the Hygiene Programme by the Maji Safi Group. My literature review highlights the relationship between insufficient MHH and adolescent pregnancy that poses a risk to girls’ educational aspirations as well as their sexual and reproductive health. However, there is limited research about country-specific programming of educational programmes that incorporate MHH. To respond to this gap, I conducted a qualitative study in the Rorya District in Tanzania between March 2022 and December 2022. My overarching research question explores how the two education programmes focused on MHH—the Gender Respect Programme and the Hygiene Programme—address issues regarding menstrual health and hygiene of adolescent girls in the Rorya District, and to what extent they address the concerns regarding the link between MHH and adolescent pregnancy. My study raises sub-questions focused on three areas: the design and implementation of the interventions, their effect on participating adolescent girls, and possible improvements to enhance MHH education in the Rorya District. The research analyses views from participants of the programmes, staff, adolescent girls in the c…
abstract: In 2009, I volunteered in Shirati, a rural community in the Rorya District of the Mara Region of Tanzania. Over the next several years, I made numerous visits and developed strong ties to Shirati. Through discussions with local health and education professionals I became aware of the negative consequences of insufficient menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) and adolescent pregnancy for school-aged girls. In 2019, I turned these concerns into praxis and founded the Gender Respect Project at a primary school run by a non-governmental organization called REACH Shirati. Sparked by my work experience and the professional relationships built over a decade, I started a PhD project in 2020 that developed into a case study about two health education interventions with MHH education in the Rorya District: my own Gender Respect Project and the Hygiene Programme by the Maji Safi Group. My literature review highlights the relationship between insufficient MHH and adolescent pregnancy that poses a risk to girls’ educational aspirations as well as their sexual and reproductive health. However, there is limited research about country-specific programming of educational programmes that incorporate MHH. To respond to this gap, I conducted a qualitative study in the Rorya District in Tanzania between March 2022 and December 2022. My overarching research question explores how the two education programmes focused on MHH—the Gender Respect Programme and the Hygiene Programme—address issues regarding menstrual health and hygiene of adolescent girls in the Rorya District, and to what extent they address the concerns regarding the link between MHH and adolescent pregnancy. My study raises sub-questions focused on three areas: the design and implementation of the interventions, their effect on participating adolescent girls, and possible improvements to enhance MHH education in the Rorya District. The research analyses views from participants of the programmes, staff, adolescent girls in the c…
author: Kernen, Manuel Daniel
language: eng
keywords: Access to Education, Adolescent Pregnancy, Capability Approach, Case Study, Financing, Gender Equity, Global South, Health Education, Mara Region, Menstrual Health and Hygiene, Programme Implementation, Public Health, Rorya District, Scalability, School Dropout, SDGs, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Social Norms, Structure and Agency, Sustainable Development, Tanzania, WASH, Educational Aspirations
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/cfd3b8c1-75d4-4fb8-999c-1b92607c2f2d/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2025-04-11
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:30Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.124617