Not long ago, in a primary school in Gansu, the teacher was guiding girls to say no to improper behavior bravely. Courtesy of China Social Welfare Foundation Aixiaoya Fund
"When the day is not everywhere, youth comes at the right time. The moss flower is as small as rice, and it also blooms like peony."
For children in the flower season, growth is always accompanied by a variety of worries, and girls in remote areas may have more worries. How do they face the confusion of adolescence? How to deal with growing pains?
With such a force, over the past eight years, team members have traveled more than 50000 kilometers, covering Yunnan, Ningxia, Sichuan, Chongqing, Gansu and other places. They have distributed more than 100000 physiological hygiene kits free of charge to girls in remote areas, accompanied and funded more than 9000 girls one-on-one in depth, and helped more than 70000 girls in total.
This force is called the Love Xiaoya Fund of the China Social Welfare Foundation, which aims to care for and help girls in remote areas. Since its establishment in 2013, it has helped more and more mountain girls understand physiological and health knowledge, and helped them face up to every transformation in their growth.
change
Start by giving your child a set of clean underwear
"Do you know what this is? Please take out the hair band inside and put it on your head first." On the platform, a female teacher took out the Xiaoya bag customized by the Love Xiaoya Fund and introduced the items and usage to the girls one by one.
"Xiaoya bag is actually a physiological hygiene bag," said Zhang Ruwei, secretary-general of the Love Xiaoya Fund of the China Social Welfare Foundation. Girls are usually shy when they first learn about physiological hygiene. At this time, Xiaoyabao is often a good way to break the deadlock.
Xiaoya Bao is divided into sister Bao and sister Bao. Sister bags are mainly distributed to girls in primary and secondary schools above grade four, and sister bags are mainly distributed to girls in grades one to three of primary schools. MEI MEI's bag contains 2 sets of underwear, 1 laundry soap, 1 moisture-proof bag, 1 physiological hygiene knowledge card, 1 hairband and 1 hairband. In contrast, my sister's bag has fewer hair bands and two more sanitary napkins for daily use and night use.
"Many years ago, when we visited remote areas on the spot, we found that some girls did not form good physical health habits and lacked self-protection awareness." Zhang Ruwei said that many girls in remote areas were left behind girls, and their mothers were not around all year round. Many girls are about to enter puberty or have already entered puberty, but they seldom contact with relevant physiological health knowledge. They often face the embarrassment of no one to ask about the changes in their bodies during adolescence. Some elders hide this, and some avoid talking about it, thinking that children will understand it when they grow up. When the girls came to menstruation for the first time, some of them were panicked and didn't know how to deal with it, others felt embarrassed and ashamed, and some even thought they were seriously ill.
"A Tao (a pseudonym), a girl who impressed me most, thought she had an incurable disease when she first came to menstruation, so she secretly wrote a suicide note to her parents thousands of miles away." Zhang Ruwei said that in order to change this situation, the Xiaoyabao project was officially launched in 2014.
"To improve the physical and health status of girls left behind in remote areas, we should start with giving girls a set of clean underwear." Zhang Ruwei said that underwear is the first set of armor for girls, and the appearance of Xiaoya Bao is to remind them to pay attention to protecting their privacy, and underwear and underpants should be changed frequently.
guide
Popularize the knowledge of physical health and change the backward concept
"The place where we wear underpants is a private part. We can't let others see it or touch it, OK?"
"Good!"
Such scenes have been staged many times in "Xiaoya Classroom".
In Zhang Ruwei's opinion, Xiaoya Bao is only the first step. If we want to improve the physical health of these girls, we should also provide them with supporting education and guidance to popularize scientific, correct and practical knowledge.
"Every time Xiaoya bags are distributed, we will provide professional Xiaoya classes to explain the corresponding physiological health knowledge to girls and guide them to establish a good health awareness." Zhang Ruwei said that Xiaoya classes at different ages have different priorities. For young girls, in addition to basic physiological health knowledge, they also include self-protection related content; For girls who are about to enter puberty, talk about the physiological development and psychological changes of female adolescence, health care during menstruation, etc. Through the mode of "Xiaoya bag+Xiaoya class", girls can understand the basic physiological health knowledge and solve many doubts about adolescence.
During the field visit, Zhang Ruwei and the team members found that many of the best-selling sanitary napkins in some villages and towns and in the canteen near the school were inferior brands that they had never seen before.
"In fact, some children can't afford sanitary napkins. The problem is how to make them pay attention to their own health and choose high-quality sanitary products." Zhang Ruwei pointed out that some rural snack bars also have formal brand sanitary napkins, which usually cost more than 10 yuan a pack, while there are many fake low-quality sanitary napkins among the miscellaneous brands, some of which only sell for 5 yuan a pack of 30 pieces. In contrast, girls tend to buy whatever is cheap, which gradually leads to sellers being reluctant to purchase expensive sanitary napkins.
A dozen yuan seems insignificant, but it is the monthly allowance of many left behind girls. Many girls are embarrassed to ask for the money at home, so they have to choose those cheaper low-quality sanitary napkins. For this reason, Aixiaoya has tried to build a long-term health station "Girls' Gas Station" in some schools since last year, to provide sanitary napkins for rural girls to meet their daily use of physiological and sanitary items.
"Many girls don't understand that using inferior sanitary napkins is easy to cause inflammation. In the final analysis, it is necessary to guide children correctly to help them form a healthy concept of physical health." Zhang Ruwei said that if there is no supporting education and guidance, even if the material problem is solved for a while, girls may still feel mentally that they do not need to use good sanitary napkins, Popularizing the knowledge of physical health and changing the backward concept can really help these girls solve the problem.
strive
Help more left behind girls grow up healthily
"Later, A Tao also received her sister Bao. When she learned that menstruation is a sign of a girl's growing up, her first reaction was that if she had a child in the future, she would tell her in advance not to be at a loss like herself." Zhang Ruwei said, "The improvement of mother's health awareness is more beneficial to the cultivation of the next generation."
Wan Huiyu is a staff member of Longxiang Social Work Service Center in Puyang City, Henan Province. In her opinion, these girls need much attention and support from the outside world.
Gaosheng School in Wanzhou District, Chongqing is one of the schools covered by the Xiaoyabao project. Wang Chuanquan, secretary of the Party branch and president of the school, actively introduced the love project of public welfare organizations into the campus. "One semester we did four special education for women, such as how to use sanitary napkins, how to recognize their bodies, how to prevent sexual assault for girls, and the boundaries of correct communication between men and women.".
"Our school also put a box in the girls' toilet, and put 2 packs of sanitary napkins into the box every time for girls to use in emergencies. After the physiological health class, the children are very calm when they meet the physiological period again. For example, in physical education during physiological period, girls will generously ask for leave from their teachers if they encounter more intensive sports activities. The teachers will also instruct children not to touch cold water or do strenuous exercises during physiological period. Everyone will smile at each other, and the matter will be over. "
"In the past eight years, Aixiaoya has received more and more support." Zhang Ruwei said that in recent years, Internet public welfare platforms such as Tencent Public Welfare have built channels for public welfare organizations to communicate with the public. Benefiting from this, during the "99 Public Welfare Day" last year, Aixiaoya Fund, together with a number of We Media, released many stories about mountain girls and received a lot of positive feedback. This year's "99 Public Welfare Day", Aixiaoya Fund still plans to use WeChat public account and video account to link with other media to disseminate high-quality public welfare content.
In recent years, the physiological health education of girls in remote areas has attracted more and more people's attention. Many schools have opened physiological health related courses for girls. In addition to loving girls, many public welfare forces have actively participated in helping girls. These efforts are helping more left behind girls grow into independent, brave and confident women. (Wang Meihua)
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[Editor in charge: h001]
