By Tom Charlesworth
For nearly five years, Leeds-based charity, Freedom4Girls, have been working to combat period poverty in the area and try to battle the stigma around menstruation. Tina Leslie, the founder of the group, believes that despite being the 6th largest economy in the world, many women and young girls are still tasked with choosing between food or period products.
A 2017 report carried out by the development and humanitarian organisation Plan International found that over one in ten girls are unable to afford period products in the country. As a result of the previous year, Tina believes this number might have risen.
Despite being such a large issue, many still don’t talk about it. However, how are we supposed to overcome such a problem if there’s complete collective silence?
“We envisage a world in which no girl or woman suffers from period poverty or stigma associated with their periods.”
Tina Leslie, Freedom4Girls
In addition to their work here in the UK, Freedom4Girls has an outreach project in Eastern Africa, helping young women through their periods. For some, this time in their life can be confusing and even bring shame.
“The girls are more focussed on will they leak when they get up, rather than what’s on the blackboard,” Tina told me, highlighting one reason why so many young girls aren’t able to go to school in Kenya and Uganda.
Even now, in 2021, it’s clear that this is a huge, world-wide problem that is still approached by many with apprehension. It’s time that we #breakthestigma and begin talking as a society about periods. Because after all, over half of the world’s population goes through this.
Listen to the podcast above to hear what Freedom4Girls are doing to combat this problem in their area.
What are the figures?
There has been a great deal of research taken out surrounding period poverty around the UK. Below are just some of the most breath-taking stats from a 2017 report by Plan International.
10% - One in ten girls have been unable to afford sanitary wear
14% - One in seven girls have had to ask to borrow sanitary wear from a friend due to affordability issues
20% - One in five girls in the UK have overused a sanitary product because they cannot afford a fresh one
48% - Nearly half of girls aged 14-21 in the UK are embarrassed by their periods
25% - One in four girls and young women said they felt unprepared for the start of their period
15% - One in seven said they didn’t know what was happening when they first started their period
26% - Over one in four girls reported that they didn’t know what to do when starting their period
40% - Two fifths of girls aged 14-21 had experienced having to use toilet roll because they could not afford period products
It’s estimated that over 135,000 children across the UK have missed at least one day of school as a result of period poverty
It’s easy to let these figures wash away and be ignored, especially as we, as a society, don’t like talking about periods. But that isn’t good enough.
#BreaktheStigma and start talking about periods. Only then can we start combatting period poverty.