School-age girls need a few things to manage menstruation without feeling ashamed and while continuing their normal daily lives. First of all, they need information for themselves, their classmates and their communities about what menstruation is, and sometimes what it is not. They also need clean supplies, privacy, disposal facilities, soap and clean water, and access to health care — basic things that can make a great difference to a girl.
Many girls greet their first periods with alarm, without knowing anything at all about menstruation. In Nepal, for example, local superstitions prevent menstruating girls from going to school, looking in the mirror, trimming their nails or touching flowers, fruit, drinking water or pickles, among other things. Some communities still follow the traditional Nepali custom of sending menstruating girls to live alone in unheated chhaupadi huts, leaving them vulnerable to exposure to the cold, smoke inhalation and attacks by animals, with sometimes fatal results. Lack of accurate information leaves room for confusion and embarrassment, the repercussions of which can be far-reaching for girls and their communities.