What is period poverty?

Period poverty is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities, and, or waste management.

Below are a few facts that everyone needs to know about period poverty:

• Globally, 2.3 billion people live without basic sanitation services and in developing countries, only 27% of people have adequate hand washing facilities at home, according to UNICEF. These poverty gaps make it difficult for women and young girls to adequately manage their periods safely and with dignity. 
• It is not uncommon for young girls to miss school during their time of menstruation due to the lack of protection and unfair shame placed upon them during this time, taking them away from the chance to receive a proper education.
• Even boys would benefit from menstrual education as it would promote healthy habits and breaks down the awful stigma placed on such a natural bodily experience. 
• Poor menstrual hygiene can lead to greater health issues and has been linked to reproductive problems and urinary tract infections. 
• A way to prevent this is to make menstrual products, sanitation, and hygiene easily accessible
• Most sanitary products are not included in health insurance etc. So for families with smaller incomes, such essential sanitary products may get pushed to the bottom of the list of needs.

Please visit the link here for some important statistics regarding period poverty: