En la vida de adolescentes y mujeres, la menstruación es mucho más que una rutina una vez al mes. Para muchas de ellas, acceder a condiciones mínimas para menstruar con dignidad ―como tener acceso a agua, jabón, privacidad, productos de higiene menstrual, consultas ginecológicas o hasta un diagnóstico sobre dolores menstruales― es un privilegio y una expresión diaria de la desigualdad. Muchas, incluso, carecen de acceso a la más mínima información. Y así el estigma de “tener la regla” se transforma en otra barrera completamente invisibilizada en el camino. Más, si el viaje que emprendes es cruzar la selva más peligrosa del mundo.

Of all this I was already aware, but I never saw it as clear as when I arrived at Darién's jungle, the natural border that Panama and Colombia separates.Surviving Darién is part of the trip towards the dream of reaching the north that thousands of families from all over the world undertake.More and more women, children and adolescents enter the darkness of the jungle, without water, without food, at the mercy of all imaginable dangers: from insects and wild animals to armed bands.As if all the evils in the world were agreed in this almost impregnable natural strength.According to official figures, more than 130.000 migrants will cross the Darien this year, a number never seen before.And one in five will be a boy or a girl.So far, we know that three quarters of those who have crossed the jungle are under five years.

It was my first day at the San Vicente immigration reception station, on the Panamanian side of Darién, one of the places where migrant families arrive who manage to cross the jungle on foot.While I walked between the tents, a Haitian woman of about 30 and many approached me and in a not so fluid Spanish asked me if I could talk to me.He looked at my partner and asked to leave her and me alone.It's "among women," he said.And it was not necessary to explain anything else.She needed hygienic towels because she was with menstruation and had to follow her trip."Stay here near, I'm going to bring you," I replied.

Suddenly, I remembered what the complicity routine was like in my school when one of my companions was with the rule.Actually, it didn't matter if I was really friend, companion or a acquaintance, there was always someone willing to give you, with the maximum discretion of a secret that we all know, a wipe.

I did not ask his name, I looked for my colleagues from UNICEF's office in Panama who work on the ground and asked them if we had hygienic towels.With some packages in my pocket, I started looking for her again, but she found me first.And, without telling us anything else, we approached a corner, I took out the packages and gave them discreetly as I imagined that she would like."Thank you very much," said excitedly.I asked him if he needed something else and told me no, in minutes he had to get on the bus that would take her to the border with Costa Rica and then follow her trip to the north.

She continued on her way.For me that moment was a blow of reality in the face.The menstrual cycle does not stop when girls, teenagers and women face different challenges of daily life, and does not do so when girls and adolescents undertake dangerous migratory routes, including crossing one of the most dangerous jungles after walking for days through different countries.

"I was with the rule in the jungle," Sherlanka tells me, he is 15 years old and is Chilean and Haitian.She has been traveling with her whole family for a month from Chile.This afternoon he joined one of the talks about menstrual and self -care hygiene that UNICEF and his partner Hias performed at the White Lajas Migration Reception Station.

They are a group of girls and adolescents between 10 and 16, some have been in the camp for a couple of days and others have arrived that afternoon.All Darién survivors.While drawing and laughing, we begin to talk about female anatomy and how menstruation also influences our emotions and body.Some myths and falsehoods about menstruation fall in the minutes that the conversation lasts.They serve the talk with emotion and a nervous laugh, ask, laugh, feel comfortable.

Generally, the odyssey of crossing the Darién takes between seven to 10 days, almost the same as some menstrual cycles last on average.When were they crossing the jungle, they worried if menstruation came there? In unison they answered "yes".

“My mother wanted the rule to come to us as we crossed the jungle of the Darién, he told us that nobody would violate us.When I arrived on the trip, I felt relieved, ”he said looking at his sister who was his side and also nodded.Sherlanka's confession left us all, looking at us in complicity, because we have all felt at some point that fear of sexual assault.I can't even imagine inside an inhospitable jungle.From January to November of this year, UNICEF reported 38 cases of sexual violence, although without a doubt that figure is only the tip of the iceberg.

700 adolescents and women attended talks about menstrual hygiene as this in 2021 and more than 1 were distributed.500 Hygiene lots containing hygienic towels, tampons and underwear."That menstruation do not take away rights," says the monitor as a farewell.

For three years, UNICEF, thanks to the United States government funds, provides survivors with the Darién services for drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, maternal child health, training and delivery of menstrual hygiene lots, protection against allthe forms of violence and psychosocial accompaniment, with recreational and child development activities in friendly spaces.The European Union has also recently joined this effort.

It was probably the first time that these girls and adolescents talk about menstruation in an environment of trust and with specialists.“I thought that White was not the rule.They always discriminated against us, so I thought it only happened to the Haitians, ”says Sherlanka unleashing some laughs and surprises of the listeners.Surely many other myths will continue standing, but I like to think that now, all these teenagers have one more tool and that what they learned in this circle of brave girls and women will help them for their trip and their life.

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