*To honor voices behind landmark Bleeding in Silence research
By Adeyinka Adeniran
Building on Evidence from Its 2025 ‘Pad a Girl’ MHD Outreach, Nigerian Youth-Led NGO Invites Secondary School Students to transform their menstrual experiences into essays, poetry, and paintings
Teens Smart Builders Initiative (TESMI), a Nigerian youth-led nonprofit advancing adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights, has announced the My Period Story Essay Competition 2026 a creative advocacy competition designed to commemorate Menstrual Hygiene Day (May 28, 2026) and amplify the findings of TESMI’s 2025 Bleeding in Silence research, a landmark school-based menstrual hygiene survey that exposed the depth of period poverty, stigma, and neglect facing adolescent girls in Nigerian private schools.
Under the rallying theme “From Silence to Story: Every Period Has a Voice,” the competition invites secondary school students across Nigeria to submit entries in three creative categories: Essay, Poetry, and Painting with a total prize pool of ₦300,000 across all categories.
From research to recognition: the story behind competition
The competition is directly rooted in TESMI’s groundbreaking Bleeding in Silence study, conducted during Menstrual Hygiene Day week in May 2025 as part of TESMI’s Pad a Girl initiative. Reaching 200 adolescent girls aged 10–18 across four secondary schools in Lagos and Ogun States the survey generated some of the most alarming school-level evidence on menstrual health in Nigeria’s private school sector.
Key findings from the Bleeding in Silence study include:
*73.1% of girls could not afford sanitary pads every month, indicating acute period poverty
*81.5% had no access to private changing spaces in school
*55.6% experienced teasing or bullying related to their period
*Only 9.3% felt confident managing their menstruation at school
*Only 38% knew the recommended pad-changing frequency, reflecting critical hygiene knowledge gaps
*60.6% did not track their menstrual cycles
*98.1% expressed eagerness to learn more about menstrual hygiene — demonstrating that girls are ready and willing to engage
These findings gave TESMI the evidence, urgency, and moral mandate to create a platform where girls are not merely survey subjects — but storytellers, advocates, and changemakers. The My Period Story Competition 2026 is that platform.
Competition details
Program Name: My Period Story Essay Competition 2026
Occasion: Menstrual Hygiene Day May 28, 2026
Organizer: Teens Smart Builders Initiative (TESMI), under the #BleedWithDignity (BWD) Campaign
Entry Categories: Essay | Poetry | Painting
Target Participants: Secondary school students (adolescent girls) 5 Lagos DISTRICT
Entry Window: March 1 – April 30, 2026
Submission Portal: tinyurl.com/bwdcreative
Prize Structure (per category — Essay, Poetry, Painting):
Star Prize (Winner): ₦50,000
First Runner-Up: ₦30,000
Second Runner-Up: ₦20,000
Thematic Focus Areas:
Access to Clean Water & Sanitary Facilities
Proper Menstrual Hygiene Management
Combating Period Stigma & Bullying
Educational Programs on Menstrual Health
Providing Sanitary Pads for Girls
Why initiative matters
Menstrual hygiene is a health right, an education right, and a dignity right — yet for millions of Nigerian girls, it remains a source of shame, fear, and school absence. While public schools in Nigeria have increasingly benefited from government-led menstrual health programs, private schools which educate a significant percentage of Nigeria’s female students have largely been excluded from such interventions, with the erroneous assumption that fee-paying families can afford better care.
TESMI’s 2025 Bleeding in Silence study shattered that assumption. It revealed that period poverty, absent WASH facilities, and menstruation-related bullying are as pervasive inside private school gates as anywhere else. The My Period Story Competition builds on that evidence by transforming raw data into human stories — centering girls not as statistics, but as powerful advocates for their own rights. Winners will be invited to become Menstrual Hygiene Advocates, co-create the Menstrual Justice Charter, and be featured during Menstrual Hygiene Day 2026 celebrations.
Executive Director speaks
“When we went into those schools in May 2025 for our Pad a Girl outreach on Menstrual Hygiene Day, we were not prepared for what the girls would tell us. Their stories of hiding stained uniforms, missing class, managing pain in silence, and being bullied simply for bleeding became the foundation of our Bleeding in Silence research.
Now, we are turning that research back into a gift for the girls themselves: a competition that says, your story matters, your voice is evidence, and your silence ends here. We invite every secondary school girl in Nigeria to step forward, write, paint, recite and be heard”, says Oluwafemi Adeshina Executive Director, Teens Smart Builders Initiative (TESMI)
Call for participation
TESMI warmly calls on all secondary school students particularly adolescent girls across Nigeria to submit entries before the April 30, 2026 deadline via tinyurl.com/bwdcreative. Teachers, school administrators, development partners, and media organizations are encouraged to amplify this opportunity and nominate eligible students.
Join the movement. Share the campaign using: #MyPeriodStory #BleedWithDignity #TesmiNigeria
