Feminine Hygiene

In America, within the African American community, talks about hygiene are normally received from elders to young girls; mothers, aunts, grand mothers, older sisters and older cousins. Emphasis on family and women, African American women. Sometimes a trusted African-American teacher can be heard providing information on this sensitive subject if warranted.  In general this comes from respected people in the family and community. It is also a serious topic and talked about with great command, and confidence. It can be uncomfortable to talk about but should be received. Well tomorrow I have to give the girls at my center the talk; which again is weird coming from an outsider and someone seem in an authoritative role. But they look up to me so the information should be well received. On a topic like I would usually be gentle, approachable, and calm in nature, I will need to be stern, confident, and knowledgeable to get across that importance of the information. With topics such as these Filipinos at times become uncomfortable like any person would. Their response however is to behave child like, giggle and make jokes of the information, which at times diminishes the importance of the session topics.  It is counterproductive to our mission of empowering women to: be in more control of their bodies, be more knowledgeable of process, be healthy, clean and comfortable with their body. So we will see how this goes.