I got my first period more than seventeen years ago, and yet I still remember what that day felt like. The panic of feeling unfamiliar pain, the embarrassment of having to ask someone for help, and the dawning realization that this would be my reality for years to come. Every. Single. Month.

Yet my experience was a relatively easy one. I knew what was happening to me and why. All I had to do was ask my parents to get the feminine hygiene products I needed. No one in my life made me feel embarrassed or ashamed about what was happening to me.

But imagine instead a thirteen-year-old girl who has her first period while she is at school. She knows what’s happening to her—sort of. She’s heard the word “period,” but her family hasn’t talked to her about menstruation before. There’s too much stigma around that word. She’s heard hushed, whispered conversations at school with words like “unclean” and “dirty” standing out above the rest. The school day has just started, and she has no period products with her, nor does she know where to get them. Not knowing what else to do, she decides to go home and miss class that day. She ends up staying home from school for days until her period is over.

Period poverty—the inability to access feminine hygiene products, education about periods, and/or hygienic facilities to manage their periods—is a reality for so many girls across the globe, including in the communities where Children of the Nations serves. They face misinformation and stigma around periods at an age where girls often already feel vulnerable and insecure. Without access to feminine hygiene products, they face barriers to education and day-to-day life.

Rebecca, one of the young women from Children of the Nations–Uganda, shared some of these barriers.

“Educationally, there is the missing of school or classes within those days of the flow because of fear of staining their clothes and its stigma. Hence, academic performance is always affected.”

Every woman I know has experienced the gut-dropping moment of realizing their period has started and they don’t have a tampon or pad with them. But what if you faced the choice of spending all day at school without these resources or missing class and going home?

Some girls resort to using unhygienic materials. Rebecca cited rags, toilet paper, and even paper as some of the materials girls will use, making them vulnerable to infection. Rebecca has also seen that “there is a psychological effect, like low self-esteem and confidence . . . hence, girls end up living in isolation.”

There is a solution to these issues, but we need your help. Children of the Nations has partnered with Days for Girls to provide sustainable, reusable feminine hygiene products that can be used for up to three years. Just a $30 gift of feminine hygiene products will protect a young woman from infection, help her stay in school, and empower her to reach her full potential.

Rebecca said, “Girls feel dignified, empowered, and much more human and treat menstrual cycles as a normal part of a female when they have access to feminine hygiene products . . . [After I received feminine hygiene products,] I became active and could now participate in cocurricular activities like sports and dance presentations because I felt safe to run, jump and dance. I could attend school even during the days of my flow and even concentrate well in class because I felt safe.”

Will you help girls like Rebecca feel dignified, empowered, and safe? Give feminine hygiene products today.

 

By Kelly Flannery, Marketing Writer at Children of the Nations