Hygiene Promotion is a planned, systematic approach delivered by Red Cross Red Crescent staff and volunteers, to enable people to take action to prevent water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases by mobilization and engagement of the affected population, their knowledge, and resources. An often-overlooked aspect is the inclusion of menstrual hygiene in every humanitarian response. Women and girls have menstrual hygiene needs from day 1 of any crisis, and a holistic approach which addresses the 3 core components of MHM – access to materials, private and safe facilities, and information – is essential.
This is specialisation training within AutRCs emergency WASH training pathway, and it is closely related to general hygiene promotion programming (eg. by using the “8-steps of hygiene promotion framework”). We think that the skills and concepts learned within a menstrual hygiene framework are generalizable to hygiene promotion in its broader sense.
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