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The average person who menstruates has their period for around 2,535 days of their life. That is around seven years, and that's according to the UN. That's a lot of pads, a lot of tampons, not to mention the pain and discomfort that comes from having your periods too. But not everyone has equal access to sanitary products. When there's money, I use...
We're going to ask whether reusable products could help solve period poverty. I'm Hannah Gelbart and this is What's in the World from the BBC World Service.
Well, here to break it all down for us is BBC journalist Gloria Acheng in Nairobi. Hello, welcome to the programme. Hi, Hannah. How are you? Yeah, I'm great. Thank you. So we know a bit about period poverty, right? It's where people can't afford to buy period products or don't have access to it. It's a global issue. It affects women and girls in the global south, but also here in the UK and in the US. And according to the World Bank,
There are 500 million women and girls in the world who don't have access to menstrual products. So Gloria, why is this? Isn't
Isn't it a basic need? Yeah, especially in Africa. We ask women, like, what are some of the issues that lead them to having period poverty? And the biggest issue that they talk about is the high cost of period products and also access. You find that most of these period products are really easy to find in urban areas. But when you go to the rural areas, it's very difficult for them to find these products.
and they result to using products like the old clothes, the cotton wool. Some of them use rags and even some I've heard use things like leaves. Yeah, and I was reading some BBC research from 2023 that found that
Ghana had the most expensive sanitary products relative to monthly income and women on the minimum wage there were spending one in every $7 they earned on sanitary pads. So apart from the fact that there's clearly a health issue here if women don't have access to sanitary products, what are some of the other consequences of this?
period poverty. When girls are having periods, they don't go to school because they don't have the products. It also affects women, working class women. So you find that for women who do not have these products, they are not able to go to work.
when they're having their period because now there's the stigma, there is, you know, you need clean toilets. Maybe you don't have a clean toilet where you work or in school. And that can really keep women behind in society. Now, I remember when I got my first period, I was about 11 or 12 and I was at school. And the type of products that are available now have changed so much since then, including all of these reusable products.
Can you talk me through some of the reusable period products that you can get now? Yeah, so some of the reusable period products that you can get now is the reusable pad. We also have the reusable panty, the period panty. My name is Patricia Kajumba, the founder of Glow Up Pads, a social enterprise that is producing reusable sanitary pads.
here in the Bunyoro region, but Uganda as a whole. Over the past five years, we've been able to increase the chance of over 4,000 girls to remain in school, to have dignified periods, but also have their daily routines uninterrupted by periods.
We do understand and appreciate that there are quite a variety of menstrual products in our community. However, we find that those products are not sustainable or rather not easily affordable by the young girls.
As a social enterprise over the years we have faced a number of challenges here and there. One of them being the high pricing of the raw materials that we use.
However, we have also gotten some great reports from some of our users saying that these pads have enabled them to have comfortable and dignified periods. They are able to attend school. Women are able to have uninterrupted hours.
And we also have something that has become really popular in the continent, which is the menstrual cup, which you can use even up to 10 years. So you find that most women who have gotten access to menstrual cups
They have really appreciated because this is reusable. You can boil it at home. It's easy to use for those who know how to use, although there are still meats, but it's becoming quite popular. I like this cup because it's comfortable when I walk long distances and play with children. It also does not produce any smell. The cup is good because when I use it, my period does not leak, so I do not stain my clothes.
Now you're going to hear from The Cova Project, an Australian charity that donates menstrual cups to women and girls across the continent. My name is Gina Dunn and I'm the founder and CEO of The Cova Project. To date, we have provided 38,000 cups.
That's since our inception in 2019. The bulk of those cups have gone to Uganda in East Africa, but we have projects in Liberia and Ghana in West Africa, and we also have projects in Malawi. When we started off, we obviously had a much tougher job at talking to girls about menstrual cups because they'd never seen a menstrual cup, let alone an insertable period product.
Now, being six years into the journey, we have so much success through word of mouth. They've been really well received. We run roughly an 80% cup uptake rate after four months.
Clean water is such an important issue for us, and we select our communities very specifically looking for communities that have access to clean water. Oftentimes that means working with schools where a wash officer has come in and helped us identify schools that are going to have the appropriate facilities for girls to have access to the right kind of cleaning practices to make sure that they can change their cup and clean their cup safely.
But the wonderful thing about cups is that they don't require nearly as much water as many of the other alternative products that are reusable. So when you're washing a cup, you're merely putting it in a sterilization bag with a small amount of boiling water and giving it time to sterilize.
The number one thing with menstrual cups is that they are an insertable device. So you do have to be pretty comfortable with your body and you are going to have to touch your body to insert it. So making sure that we have really clean hands when we're doing that procedure is the number one thing that's going to help reduce that infection stat.
Gloria, you mentioned that the menstrual crap in particular is popular across the continent. How popular are the other products? So I've done about two stories in the past year where we have women who have either gone through training or are helping girls in the rural communities to access period products, teaching these girls how to make their reusable pads.
They just show them which materials they need to have and they show them how to sew the reusable pad. So that has also become very popular. If you have a choice, some women may choose not to use reusable products because they're messy. You will need access to clean water to be able to wash them. And that could be particularly difficult in some countries, right?
So you find that most people would say for the reusable pad, you need to wash it, you need water, you need soap. And you find that maybe people don't have water. So they choose not to use it because it needs water, it needs soap, it needs sunshine. Because if you don't dry the reusable pad properly, then you're at risk of getting infections because of it being damp. Is there a lot of stigma around these reusable products?
I haven't come across people talking about stigma when it comes to the reusable pads. However, there is stigma when it comes to the menstrual cup.
When period products started coming into the continent, a lot of people were telling each other that when you wear a menstrual cup, you're going to break your virginity. And for the young girls, they feared using it because they felt they're going to break their virginity, especially for communities where virginity is a very, you know, like it's a serious part of growing up and adulthood.
A lot of them feared using it. But we have, of course, people who are training girls more about the menstrual caps and just telling them that you're not breaking your virginity. It's still a bit of a taboo to talk about periods. And there are lots of myths about them and about the products themselves. So here to break some of those down is BBC Health reporter Michelle Roberts.
There are some myths about tampons and menstrual cups. Here's what to know. Tampons need to be inserted into the vagina, which can take a bit of practice. There are different sizes depending on your flow or amount of bleeding.
When managing your periods, there's a tiny risk of something called toxic shock syndrome that's been linked with tampons but also menstrual cups. It's very rare but can be serious and is caused by certain bacteria that release toxins into the bloodstream. Some of the signs and symptoms are like severe flu, a high temperature and aches. If in doubt or you feel very unwell, seek medical advice.
Always use the lowest absorbency tampon that will manage your flow. Menstrual cups are a reusable alternative. They can be removed, emptied, washed and reinserted every 4-8 hours depending on your flow.
Infections can happen if you transfer bacteria from your hands to the cup and into the vagina, so wash your hands. Some people think they're unhygienic, but it's easy to wash them well and no one can tell that you're using one. And no, they can't get lost inside you.
Gloria, historically, period products have been taxed by governments. For years, they were classed as luxury items and there have been successful protest movements. I mean, here in the UK, there were huge protests in Ghana. What kind of movements are there for period?
period equity to make period products more affordable on the continent? I think for Kenya specifically, let me talk about Kenya. So two years ago, there's a senator who was stigmatized in parliament because she stained her trouser suit while she was in parliament. This story went online and there was a lot of women just calling for governments to make period products
like free for women and also not to stigmatize women for having periods because periods are a natural phenomenon. Period products are expensive. Why do women have to, you know, buy period products yet things like the condoms are being given for free? We still see a lot of women online coming in to just say that periods are normal and we should normalize the fact that a woman can stay in her dress or
or her clothes, and they should not be stigmatized for that. Overall, apart from being more environmentally friendly, because of course there is a lot of single-use plastic that goes into period products, do you think that the reusable products are a viable solution to tackle period poverty? For people who do not have like a stable income or money, these products are actually, you know, a solution because you just need to know how to make it
and if you have the right products and then the raw products to make the pad, then you're covered. A lot of women do not get education about periods. They don't get education about the available period products. They don't have that awareness of what to expect when starting a period. So I think when you do these types of education and women are aware about periods, then we can tackle period poverty.
If let's say these products and the sewing bits is added in a school curriculum and the girls learn from a young age how to make these products, then it becomes very easy for them to grow up knowing how to make these products and they can even change their societies.
Boys should also be part of the conversation because, you know, boys have moms, boys have sisters and other women in their lives. So if they also learn, then the world becomes a better place. Gloria, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Hannah. It's been a lovely, lovely session. Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Hannah Gelbart. This is What In The World from the BBC World Service. And we'll see you next time. Bye.
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