Nobody likes talking about “that time of the month”. Its something we’d rather get through and keep to ourselves. But, in some parts of the world, menstruation can be a big obstacle to daily life, especially going to school. The way Marie Phillips puts it as she describes her trip to Plan’s projects in Uganda explains the issue perfectly:

“When asked what they didn’t like about school, each of the girls spoke about the problem of menstruation. Although its stating, as it were, the bloody obvious, its worth remembering that on average girls have their period for one week in four, and in a country where many girls can’t afford underwear and almost none can pay for sanitary protection, this is hugely debilitating. The girls told us that they use banana fibers (apparently fairly effective) or plastic bags (rather less so), as sanitary protection, but that the school doesn’t have adequate toilet facilities to allow them to change their protection or clean themselves up. They don’t even have any toilet paper. I tried to imagine dealing with my period with only plastic bags and no toilet paper…and failed. It’s no wonder that many girls do not attend school while their menstruating. Would you?”

Let’s say that a girl gets her period around the age of 12, and continues to attend school until the age of 18. If this is true, that means that an average girl would miss approximately 1.5 years of school during this time on account of her period!