Whole Woman Movement

"F or Kuda, this was a period filled with strange and weird experiences like waking up with a swollen face and swollen feet and, at certain times, experiencing cramps in her teeth and tongue (how crazy is that)" W hen we talk about how anaemia exacerbates gender disparities by hindering the learning potential and life opportunities of adolescent girls, weakening their immune systems, and increasing the risk of life-threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth, some people may mistakenly dismiss it as a feminist agenda statement. However, it's crucial to recognise that these are real experiences that girls are facing right now. To emphasise the profound impact of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) on the lives of adolescent girls – a formative stage that shapes their journey into adulthood and womanhood – let's delve into Kuda's personal story of how she battled IDA during her early adolescent years. Let me take you back a little. Imagine that year when...

“One thing I remember is being teased, bullied, and laughed at for my weird cravings …  and that did hurt my self-esteem.” A distressed Adolescent gir l A dolescence is a confusing stage for many young people. Imagine one day you are this 10-year-old young girl playing all over the streets, then the next thing you have these heavy painful periods that often take you away from school. As if that is not enough, two years later you have all these weird cravings and unexplainable energy loss which causes you to want to hide away. In as much as this sounds too much for a 12-year-old, such was Patience’s story of living with Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) in her early adolescent years. Patience’s Iron Deficiency anaemia (IDA) journey started at the young age of 12 years. Just like many other women who have had IDA, she and her family did not have any knowledge of anaemia. To this young girl, some of her symptoms which included extreme fatigue with constant yawning no matter how much she...

“It ’s important to do health checks  at an early age,  especially blood counts so that people can get early diagnosis and seek help early ” A picture of Four generations of women W hen we talk of inherited iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) being one of the factors contributing to the unabated IDA prevalence in adolescence it often sounds like a farfetched theory. However, this is a reality of many adolescent girls whose low iron status as children is often exacerbated by the onset of menstruation in adolescence therefore triggering anaemia. While there are a million such stories, today we highlight Siphathokuhle’s lived experience in battling IDA in her adolescent years. Siphathokuhle’s journey started at the early age of 14 when she discovered that her iron levels were lower than normal. However, this news was not new to their family as her grandmother, and mother had previously battled with the same condition years back. Coming from a background of IDA survivors, one would ...