BRITISH Girls skip School!

Working in Africa we expect to hear stories about period poverty and girls missing school, but would it shock you to hear that in British Schools girls are missing school because they cannot afford sanitary pads, menstrual cups or reusable pads? Otherwise referred to as Period Poverty. 

It did me!

I was sent a copy of this article by a friend. Unfortunately I do not know the source, so if you are the author please let me know and I will credit you.

In South Africa we have over 1500 no fee paying schools in Gauteng (South Africa’s most ‘wealthy’ province) as opposed to the Eastern Cape with 3500 no fee paying schools. Dignity Dreams manufactures and distributes, washable, reusable, multi use pads to at risk women and girls.

These multi use pads are a sustainable solution to a monthly challenge for hundreds of thousands of women a month. These reusable pads if maintained correctly can be washed and used for up to 4 (four years). How incredibly cool is that!

Since our inception we have distributed approximately 100 000 (one hundred thousand) packs across South Africa and several other African Countries, including Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, DRC, Botswana, Uganda, Kenya and Syria but never to Britain! 

So here it is.

British girls skip school over period poverty

Thu, 21 Dec 2017 10:50 AM

Some girls in Britain are forced to skip school each month because they cannot afford sanitary products, campaigners said Wednesday as they called for more government support.

Women and girls in poverty are forced to improvise when they are on their period, according to the organisation Freedom4Girls.

“I spoke to a woman who could only afford a loaf of bread to feed her children, so she used a slice of bread for her period,” founder Nina Leslie said on Wednesday.

The organisation usually works in Kenya but was contacted by a school in Leeds, central England, asking for help earlier this year.

One 11-year-old girl told BBC Radio Leeds she used socks or toilet paper because her family did not give her any money for tampons or pads.

Campaigners rallied outside the prime minister’s Downing Street office on Wednesday, calling for free sanitary products to be given through schools to girls in poverty.

“Toilet paper is free in schools, so why not sanitary products?” MP Jess Phillips said at the protest.

Campaign group Free Periods estimates the initiative would cost £4.78 million ($6.39 million, 5.38 million euros) annually.

A government spokesman said £2.5 billion has been invested this year on the most disadvantaged students, which schools could spend on sanitary products.

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