For women and girls with disabilities, managing personal hygiene especially during menstruation remains a daily battle marked by invisibility, stigma, and exclusion. Inaccessible spaces, unaffordable sanitary products, and a lack of disability friendly information often combine to strip them of dignity, limit independence, and deepen economic vulnerability. On a hopeful day in Bamenda, these challenges were met with a practical, hands-on solution, led by the Community Creative Centre for Women and Girls with Disabilities (CCCWGD).
To commemorate menstrual hygiene day, the centre brought together women and girls with disabilities for an event rooted in practical skill-building and meaningful dialogue. At the gathering, was a training session on bar soap production, a simple yet life changing activity. Participants learned to produce soap using affordable, local materials, not only equipping them to improve personal hygiene, but also opening the door to potential income-generating opportunities. For many, it was the first time a training directly addressed both their physical needs and economic aspirations.
However, the event did more than offer a technical skill. It created a rare safe space where issues of personal hygiene, menstruation, and healthy relationships could be discussed openly, honestly, and respectfully. The women shared their lived experiences: the discomfort of relying on others for basic care, the frustration of being unable to access the products they need, and the silence that often surrounds their menstrual health.
These conversations, often missing from mainstream health education, were essential. For women and girls with disabilities, the lack of access to menstrual hygiene products and information can be far more than an inconvenience. It can lead to infections, missed opportunities, and social isolation.
When trained to make useful products like soap but left without the resources to produce or distribute them, many face the bitter reality of empowerment without sustainability. By combining skill training with honest dialogue, CCCWGD took a crucial step toward bridging that gap.
The initiative also highlighted the broader systemic issues at play. Even when women and girls with disabilities acquire skills, they often lack the tools, capital, or market access to put those skills to use. The cost of ingredients, mobility constraints, and inaccessible public infrastructure can turn even the most motivated trainee into a sidelined observer. CCCWGD’s inclusive model, which puts equal emphasis on practical skills, open dialogue, and community support, offers a way forward by demonstrating that inclusion must be comprehensive and continuous, not one-off or symbolic.
Menstrual Hygiene Day, observed annually on 28 May, is a global advocacy platform launched by WASH United in 2014 to break the silence around menstruation and promote the right to manage it with dignity. It draws attention to the barriers millions face, from lack of access to sanitary products to the absence of safe, private toilets and clean water. For persons with disabilities, these challenges are even more pronounced. Mainstream campaigns often overlook their needs, and menstrual hygiene management is rarely adapted to their realities.
That is why initiatives like CCCWGD’s matter. They not only make menstruation a subject of empowerment rather than shame, but also ensure that women and girls with disabilities are active participants in the solutions.
By Bakah Derick with reports
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