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Research on Menstrual Health Management
This document, produced by WaterAid, provides a great overview of the global need for menstrual hygiene management (MHM).
DfG Kits “have become a stigma eraser, a confidence builder, and a girl-power enabler.”
Neema Namadamu, Head of Maman Shujaa, Democratic Republic of Congo
There are 1.8 billion girls and women of reproductive age in the world. Of those, at least 500 million lack adequate facilities for managing their periods, according to a 2015 report from UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).
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An Oxford review of studies in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia found that at least half of the girls in the populations sampled did not have adequate access to hygiene solutions.
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In rural western Nepal, girls are sent to live in small, isolated sheds while menstruating — a custom that has led to dozens of deaths in recent years, The New York Times reports.
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In India, 23% percent of girls drop out of school because they lack access to toilets and sanitary pads.
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Out of approximately 5 million girls between the ages of 10 and 19 in Kenya, 2.6 million require support to obtain menstrual hygiene materials. "Approximately 300,000 of them, owing to cultural practices particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, would require both sanitary towels and underwear at an estimated cost of 2.6 billion Kenyan shillings.”
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A study in Ethiopia reported that 56% of girls were absent from school specifically because they did not have a sanitary pad.
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A study in Bangladesh showed that 42% of girls reported missing at least one day of school a month due to menstruation.
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A study in Ghana showed that 96.8% of participating schoolgirls felt "more confident" while wearing pads during their period and 98.4% felt better able to concentrate at school.
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In a Uganda questionnaire of school-aged girls, 19% reported that they had stained their clothes and 20% reported that they missed at least one day of school during their most recent periods.
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When 10% more girls go to school, their country’s GDP increases on average by 3%.
Additional sources:
“Menstrual hygiene management is a very important aspect all over the world. [The] Days for Girls reusable sanitary Kit has helped a lot of girls to stay in school and their grades [are] improving, especially in pastoralist communities.
I believe in the vision of DfG towards the girls and women across the world. As the world works towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, menstrual hygiene management should be focused on from the village level to the international forums across the world.”
—Severina Lemachokoti, Kenya
