Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and child marriage prevention book

Highlights

Based on UNICEF data, one out of four children in Indonesia never received information about menstruation before they had their first menstruation. Many girls are not ready when they have their first period. As a result they are amazed, confused, sad, crying and afraid. Most of adolescent girls trust to their parents, especially their mother, as their main source of information around puberty, including menstruation. Unfortunately, rarely parents provide correct information about menstruation. Lack of information about menstruation among adolescent girls, especially key information that menstruation is a sign that girls can physically become pregnant, could possibly trigger high rate of child marriage. Based on data from Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) in 2017, one out of five girls do not know that menstruation is a sign that they are physically able to get pregnant. Furthermore, based on UNICEF's research in Bone in 2019, one in two girls (50%) do not have any knowledge of this.

Muslimat NU in collaboration with UNICEF is addressing the above problems by publishing a book on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and Child Marriage Prevention. This book was written as an effort to socialize and promote the urgency of MHM education for adolescents, and at the same time as a preventive effort against child marriage practices that occur in society. UNICEF hopes that this book could be a reference guide for community leaders, ustazhah (women preacher), boarding school leaders/administrators, and teachers in providing correct information and solution in addressing child marriage phenomenon that occur in the society.

This book is only available in Indonesian.