Goal 4 – Quality Education

It is common for girls to miss 4 to 5 days of school each month due to the lack of a period pad.  Unable to keep up with the work and dealing with the shame surrounding their period, girls fall out of the educational system. The right to education is both a human right and route out of poverty – with the ‘girl effect’ well documented by global development bodies and large NGOs including Action Aid, Plan, Oxfam and others. Our work aims to keep girls in education – and reduce the level of absenteeism (reported as up to 20% by UNESCO) caused by lack of access to period pads.

In addition girls often only understand about menstruation after their first period due to the taboos surrounding it.  In schools menstrual hygiene education needs to be included in the curriculum for both girls and boys so that we can move towards a healthy understanding of each other to create equality.  In Jordan, menstrual hygiene education is not part of the curriculum and mothers are left to educate their girls.  However due to the level of shame around the subject, mothers do not pass on the necessary knowledge and girls experience their first bleed with fear.