My mission: discover.

Shortly after starting my campaign to provide reusable menstrual kits to girls in need I was contacted about a few university students in Uganda who could not afford to buy sanitary napkins. As a result, these bright young ladies were using toilet paper to manage their period. Unfortunately, this caused them to skip class during their period and all of them started falling behind in their studies. One girl in particular had become very ill from using the toilet paper and was on the verge of dropping out completely. 

I was devastated to hear the future leaders of Uganda were falling behind in their education simply because they did not have access to affordable sanitary napkins. This was happening to the girls, who by Ugandan standards, were fairly well off. How could this happen? How many other girls are going through the same thing? 

Many, if not all of you reading this right now have received some kind of education. Consider yourself blessed. Missing out on that education simply because you don't have a way to manage your period is a very hard scenario to imagine, but it happens everyday to girls and women around the world. Many schoolgirls from poor families stay home from class up to five days each month when they have their period, simply because they don't have access to affordable sanitary napkins. Many resort to using unhealthy materials to get by, such as treebark and scraps of newspaper. Of course, these materials can cause dangerous infections and even lead to cervical cancer, let alone fail at preventing embarrassing leaks and stains. (Read more)

A study conducted by Linda Scott of Oxford University’s Said Business School found that girls who were given pads reduced school absenteeism from 21 percent to 9 percent. That’s a pretty striking reduction, especially considering this is such a simple solution to keeping girls in school.

For the past year I've worked to provide girls with the materials they need in order to stay in school, but now I'm taking my efforts in a new direction. I want to know more about this issue, really understand all the factors, yet I'm finding that very little research has been done in this area. I plan on digging much deeper and conducting my own research. Before we can find a solution, we must first understand the why.  I have lots of questions and it's up to me to find the answers.

This isn't only about keeping girls in school. It's about dignity. It's about our future.

Stay tuned.

“If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls.”
--Greg Mortenson