Hello there. My name is Nankya Fairouz. Different girls have different period experiences. Depending on whether you have some knowledge about it or not. For some reason it always hits different when it is the first time. The experience I am going to talk about is not about me but my little sister, Amirah. We are six years apart. I remember the first time she had her period. By then, she was in primary six.
Some would say that primary six is still too early for one to have their period but this was the case for my sister. It was during the long holiday after term three of school. I remember this so vividly like it had just happened. It was a lazy week day and as usual being on holiday meant catching up on chores and spending most of the time with family. She suddenly began to complain about her stomach saying that it was hurting. We all just brushed it of thinking it was just mere stomach ache. So she went to the toilet. The next thing we heard is someone screaming so we all ran to the bathroom.
My siblings and I went and knocked but she said she only wanted me and Aisha, my other sister to enter the bathroom. She said she saw blood stains on the toilet paper, on her under wear and as she said this, she was crying so much. We were confused on what to say. I mean we had already experienced our period but looking for the right words to say was a bit difficult at that time. I immediately called my
mother, who was still at work and explained the whole situation. As we waited for her to return home, we helped her clean up and told her that it was okay. Luckily, we had sanitary towels so we showed her
how to wear it and how to dispose it off.
Our mum told us to comfort her, teach her how to wear a sanitary, how to dispose it off and most importantly, that it is OKAY. In that moment I was grateful that this happened when we were around. I
cannot imagine what she would have done if this had happened at school or elsewhere and she did not have anyone to talk to or comfort her about the situation.
Well, the moral of this story is that different girls have different period experiences and some don’t even have safe spaces to run to when such a thing happens. Being there for my sister during her period experience is something I take pride in and I
believe every girl deserves this.
CHEERS.