For the first time in Perú, boys are being educated about menstruation

• Renowned Peruvian journalists, artists, entrepreneurs, influencers, actors, and football players are joining the campaign aimed at educating without prejudice.

According to UNICEF, in Peru, 57% of adolescent girls have heard mockery from boys: “they associate menstruation as something dirty and disgusting,” they indicate. Therefore, girls do not talk about the topic with anyone except their mothers. In that sense, well-known figures from the media, including journalists, artists, entrepreneurs, influencers, actors, and Peruvian football players, appeared on their social networks with a band-aid shaped like a sanitary pad highlighting the phrase “Bleeding is normal, men bleed too,” but what is this about?

Yenny Garcia, Marketing Manager of Nosotras, invites everyone to be aware of the many prejudices that many children and adolescents give to the natural process of menstruation, and how the lack of education often results in bullying. According to official figures, in 2022 alone, more than 1,700 cases of school violence between students have been reported in the country, which is increasing, and as a consequence, causes great damage to the self-esteem of girls, boys, and adolescents in the country. “This problem creates isolation, prejudice and causes girls to miss classes. To face this problem of misinformation, we have to heal masculine and even feminine prejudices during childhood and adolescence, showing them that they bleed too. That’s why we’ve launched the first menstruation campaign aimed at children of all ages,” Garcia emphasizes.

Through the ‘Bleeding is Normal’ campaign, Nosotras, a brand in feminine intimate care, transformed sanitary pads into band-aids to demonstrate that bleeding, while menstruation is a more complex process, the act of bleeding is normal and there should be no shame or bullying behind it.

“For over 20 years in Peru, through the Schools Program, we have been normalizing the conversation with girls about the menstrual period in the main schools of Peru, with the aim of continuing our mission to break all the taboos surrounding this topic. Additionally, since this year we have included male children in the talks, impacting more than 130,000 children with the authorization of parents and teachers because it is necessary to educate everyone equally. In 2022 alone, we have reached more than 2,000 schools in more than 15 cities nationwide, impacting more than 350,000 students in total,” the representative indicates.

The purpose of this initiative is to educate everyone equally and to include them in this process of normalization. Boys and girls bleed at school from injuries caused by different causes in their daily lives; for their part, menstruation is important for the health of girls and women, in both cases, there should be no shame or bullying. Bleeding is normal.

Through the hashtag #BleedingIsNormal, renowned figures from the media, including journalists, artists, entrepreneurs, influencers, actors, and Peruvian football players, are joining the campaign through their social networks with a video or a photo using a band-aid and making a call to reflection through the phrase “Men bleed too.”

Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck-7v3oqVuj/