When shame becomes strength: yann’s fight for every girl he refuses to leave behind

In Dolisie, in the Republic of Congo, some memories never fade. Yann Mboungou-Tsoumbou has carried one since childhood: the image of a classmate humiliated because of her period. She had been isolated, mocked, reduced to a shame that even the adults did not know how to name. He was barely twelve, unable to react, unable even to understand why the scene hurt him so deeply. He still remembers her eyes, shattered. And his own, turning away — the eyes of a child without the words or the power to intervene.

That image stayed with him like a quiet scar. Silent, yet alive.

Years later, in secondary school, another scene reignited the first: a girl punished for refusing the advances of a teacher. Some might have dismissed it as a “women’s issue”. For Yann, it was the repetition of the same injustice — the same gaze placed upon a girl, the same silence around her. “I felt like life was giving me a second chance,” he says.

But everything truly shifted in Kimongo. During a mission in the village, he met a young girl who had no choice but to use old cloths during her menstruation because she lacked sanitary pads. That day, the old pain resurfaced — but this time, he was no longer a child. He had a voice, an adult body, and a responsibility he no longer intended to escape. “I couldn’t look away. Not again. Not after everything I had understood.”

Far from seeing it as a “women’s matter”, he saw a question of dignity. His engagement was also shaped by his own family history. Growing up surrounded by sisters instilled in him a deep conviction: what was happening to that girl could have happened to the girls he loves. And that feeling did not call for neutrality — it called for action.

From this awareness emerged his programme JE VIS SANS HONTE (I live without shame). A simple, direct, deeply human initiative: bringing menstruation out of taboo, helping girls regain confidence in their bodies, offering answers where silence usually prevails. Yann began with small discussion circles in schools, then in villages. People listened. They dared to talk. They confided things no one ever says out loud.

But as his voice grew stronger, another form of violence appeared: online abuse. Insults about his appearance. Attacks on his activism. Mockery directed at “a man talking about periods”. Comments telling him to “leave this to women”.

For a moment, these attacks brought back the helpless boy he once was, that feeling of loneliness in front of injustice. Yet he held on. Because behind the screen, he saw the same faces: the girls of Kimongo, of Dolisie, all those who cannot afford his silence.

This is when UNESCO’s programme Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3) entered his path. Through O3, Yann attended a capacity-building workshop on content creation for Hello Ado, an application co-developed by UNESCO and RAES that gives young people reliable, accessible, and safe information on sexual and reproductive health. It was not just technical training — it was a revelation.

He learned how to transform a hostile digital space into a protective one. How to produce content that educates without judging. How to counter online violence with clarity and empathy. How to equip young people to become agents of change themselves. His meeting with youth-leadership advocate Lamine Diop reinforced that intuition: to build safer worlds, young people cannot remain spectators. They must be creators.

With Hello Ado’s tools, Yann reshaped his presence online. Where insults once fed his doubts, he now shares content that reassures, explains, and protects. Online hatred still exists — but messages of gratitude now far outweigh it.

Girls write to him to say they finally understand their bodies. Young boys admit his words changed their perspective. Teachers reach out to ask for guidance. And something shifts. Slowly, but unmistakably. In families, conversations open. In schools, taboos dissolve. Online, safe spaces emerge where mockery once dominated.

“I believe that day in Kimongo, I didn’t only help one girl,” he says. “I also helped the adolescent I once was — the one who couldn’t act.”

Yann’s journey is not an isolated story. It reflects the broader change set in motion by the WCA Commitment for educated, healthy and thriving adolescents and young people in West and Central Africa. In the Republic of Congo and beyond, the O3 Programme and initiatives like Hello Ado support countries in turning this regional vision into concrete action: tackling menstrual stigma, preventing gender-based and digital violence, and creating safer learning and online spaces for every adolescent. By standing up for girls’ dignity and mobilising boys as allies, Yann shows how the engagement AOC lives through the daily choices and courage of young people.

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Learn more about Yann's NGO JE VIS SANS HONTE:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jevissanshonte/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jvsh.cg/