HPV Vaccinations and Women and Girls' Health by Tashiya G.

Tashiya Gunesekera

Education 2 -- Rubavu District, Western District

During the examination period last term, I noticed there were a group of my female students in a classroom listening to the Animatrice and another woman who was talking very seriously. The boys were sitting outside on that rare sunny day. Out of curiosity, I asked one of my male teachers as to what was going on.             

“They are checking the girls over 16 to see who has SIDA,” he replied. I nodded and went along my way. By SIDA, he meant AIDS. I was a bit confused and questioned myself as to why only the female students were being checked for HIV/ AIDS, but thought it was more likely they were checking to see which girls were pregnant. I had heard of this being done from other PCVs. Later, I saw female students coming out of the classroom applying cotton swabs to their upper arms, meaning a Vaccine. Weeks later, I brought it up with my Animatrice, Veronique. After I refreshed her memory, I asked her what the meeting and vaccine was for.

            “It’s a type of vaccination,” She said trying to find the name of it, “for Cancer.”         

“For what type of cancer?” I asked, surprised thinking the only type of Cancer that I knew of that women got vaccines for was HPV, Cervical Cancer. Veronique couldn’t remember and referred me to Vestine and Immacule, two nuns at my site, who were nurses at the Health Center.

Later that evening, after some debate as to the actual name, I came to the understanding the vaccine was indeed the HPV vaccine, which prevents infection of certain species of human papillomavirus. This virus is associated with the development of cervical cancer, genital warts, and some less common cancers. Many women in the developing world that get cancer do not receive proper medical care. Therefore, this vaccine can contribute greatly to stronger women’s health in the developing world. 

All female students over the age of 16 at my school were given the first dose of the vaccine in March of 2012, and they were told the next dose was to follow around the time I was asking questions, in May of 2012, two months later.

I found this news compelling as this vaccine in the United States has not been made compulsory due to the high cost of the vaccine ($120/ dose for a total of $360), and also due to some conservative groups who argued that the vaccine would cause girls to start engaging in sexual activity at a younger age following the vaccine. There is also some discussion about how effective the vaccine is because it does not protect against all the viruses that can cause Cervical Cancer. For all these reasons, I found it interesting to know that my school in Rwanda, which even for Rwanda is under-developed, was choosing to vaccinate many of their female students.

Later on, I found out through one of my students, that each student was also given a small booklet in Kinyarwanda that explained the vaccine, the purpose for it, and what it protected against. This was from the Ministry of Health and it was complete with diagrams of the women’s reproductive system and photographs of smiling Rwandan girls.

Coming from the United States, I have seen many differences in regards to the way women are treated in Rwandan culture. For example, I know that many female students have to do a lot of housework after school, which prevents them from being able to study and attend clubs. This is not always the case for boys. In my classes, overall the better performing students are boys. It’s almost impossible to get the majority of girls to talk loud enough to be heard because they’re taught to be quiet. There are obvious Gender Inequalities, even though Rwanda is considered by some to be an Africa success story for Gender Equality (See Note at end of post). Yet, to me this is a sign that the Government of Rwanda is trying seriously to promote women’s health issues and roles in society.

Note: A good article that looks at the discussion of Gender Equality in Rwanda, both how far it’s come and how far it has to go: http://thinkafricapress.com/rwanda/women-gender-equality