Women have been menstruating since the beginning of life itself but World Menstrual Hygiene Day, now marked every year on May 28, only started to be celebrated eight years ago, in 2014. In fact, in Africa, this inequality is evident across the continent, with 30% of girls in South Africa missing out on school during their periods while 65% of Kenyan women found period products to be too expensive to purchase and a UNICEF study in three Nigerian states found that girls deemed menstruation as a “secret and unclean experience.” Period poverty is an insidious thing, as women and girls around the globe are kept from reaching their full potential simply because of this form of gender inequality. This is largely caused by lack of education, reinforced taboos in certain societies, or the lack of access to sanitary products and adequate sanitation due to poor infrastructure and general inequality.
You can find out more about period poverty and what it is in our explainer here - and take our quiz to learn more about period poverty across Africa here.Īccording to the organisation Menstrual Hygiene Day, millions of people around the world are stigmatised, excluded, and discriminated against just because they menstruate. One of those issues is period poverty, which is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, hand-washing facilities, and more.
While this is valid across the continent, other issues that come as a result of, or related to, poverty - particularly those that mainly impact women and girls - often aren't considered such an urgent priority. When we think of poverty, especially on the African continent, we usually think of scarcity in terms of food security and money.
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