PERIOD POVERTY
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Period poverty is a global issue affecting women and girls who lack access to adequate and safe hygienic sanitary products, who cannot manage their menstruations with dignity. It also refers to women and girls having limited access to such products, resulting in using the same products over an extended period of time which may lead to infections.
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1 in every 10 girls miss school during their periods in Africa because they lack proper sanitary products. Some miss as much as 20% of their school year, others completely drop out of school. This keeps a significant portion of women uneducated and therefore potential victim.
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50% of young girls in Kenya, in age to go to school, do not have access to proper sanitary products.
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12% of all 355 million menstruating women do have financial access to proper sanitary products. Those women need to choose between food and period related products.
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800 million women and girls lack proper sanitary products everyday, in the world.
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Period related sanitary products are considered a luxury good in a lot of countries. Such products are not considered as daily necessities and therefore are not exempt from VAT making them costly for the most vulnerable and poorest populations.
Sources: unicef.org; un.org, actionaid.org
