A Menstrual Product Drive was organized by two students from Australian International School from the 22-26th of May in order to raise awareness of period poverty.

Students designed a poster and hung them around the whole secondary school since they were targeting to collect menstrual products from all the students and staff from year 6 to year 12.

The poster featured the organizing students’ email addresses, so that people who were interested could freely ask questions

They created a video that briefly introduced period poverty, information about the menstrual product drive, and celebrated menstrual hygiene day, 28th of May.

Tampons were discouraged and the products were required to be new and sealed in their original packaging.

In order to increase student engagement, organizers promoted House Points, stating that the house with the most donated products would gain house points.

Students attached stickers of the four House’s colors onto their donated menstrual products to keep tally of points

Even though menstrual products can be very personal, the product drive ended up with more than 150 products collected—with a huge support of staff and students—which was a huge success.

All the raised products went to Singapore’s “Go With The Flow” organization to support Singaporean girls who are suffering from a lack of access to menstrual products.

Organizing students aimed to raise awareness on the issue of period poverty, which can be unfamiliar to the public.

According to the World Bank, as many as 500 million people across the world lack basic menstrual products and hygienic bathroom facilities for use during their menstrual cycle.

Including the number of people who were not recorded in this data, the estimated number of people who are suffering from period poverty is enormous.

These people struggle dealing with period poverty due to the lack of access to sanitary products and menstrual hygiene education.

Menstrual Hygiene education is particularly significant since it informs people on the importance of maintaining a hygienic environment and also the proper use of hygienic products.

In Nepal, for instance, menstrual exile or ‘Chhaupadi’ is practiced towards women and girls during their menstrual period.

This custom was practiced due to the stigma that menstruating women are unclean.

They are not allowed to engage in any social or family event, but left in an unhygienic hut where they risk snake bites, physical or sexual abuse, and smoke inhalation.

According to a 2018 study by Prabisha Amatya et al., 72% of adolescent girls have experienced Chhaupadi at least once during their menstrual period.

In addition, in Venezuela, women are suffering from period poverty due to the soaring price of menstrual products.

Despite the large number of women suffering, period poverty is not a well-known global issue to the public.

People can raise awareness of the issue about period poverty by spreading information to the broader public and donating menstrual products to charity.

Period Poverty is a critical issue that the world should focus on, since “poor hygiene measures during menstruation can pose serious health risks, such as reproductive and urinary tract infections, thrush, and others” according to Rohatgi, A., & Dash, S. (2023)

Yujin Son

Australian International School

Year 11