In some resource-limited settings in Nigeria, reusable pads are being used as a sustainable solution to period poverty that can help girls stay in school and manage their menstruation with dignity. But the scale of this initiative may not be big enough to have statistically significant impact(s) on national metrics.
Halima Akande is among thousands of girls who miss school several days every month—once her menstruation comes. She fears any stain showing on her dress, cannot focus in class or take part in any extracurricular activities. It is the same nightmare for the five days her period lasts.
She stuffs into her underwear old wrappers, rags and sometimes newspapers to ensure the bleeding does not stain her clothes.
Now the teenage girl uses a reusable sanitary pad once her period comes around every month. And she can keep using it for up to 12 months before she can discard it. She does not have to skip school. Her days of absenteeism are over.
Zainab Yakubu, like Halima, does not know quite enough about menstrual health. She used pieces of cloth to stanch her flow. For her, it was not the most comfortable method. She constantly feared her clothes could get stained—and make her the butt of jokes and teasing from other girls and boys.
An estimated 500 million women and girls around the world lack adequate facilities to manage their menstrual hygiene, according to a report by the World Bank.
A growing body of evidence from UNICEF Nigeria shows that girls’ inability to manage their menstrual hygiene in school results in school absenteeism, which in turn, has severe economic costs on their lives and on the country.
In another report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF Nigeria, in Nigeria, about 10.5 million children are out of school, 60 percent of them are girls.
A former Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen in June 2021 disclosed, in Nigeria over 37 million women and girls of reproductive age, lack access to menstrual hygiene products due to a lack of funds. This, Tallen insists, could affect girl-child education in the country, as many schoolgirls spend days at home during their monthly periods, due to a lack of menstrual hygiene products. The disturbing high cost of menstrual hygiene products is said to be the cause. Making sanitary pads that are readily affordable to all girls and women is not a problem in Nigeria.
Lagos state, with support from UNFPA, is conducting a state-wide assessment on menstrual hygiene management across its secondary schools. In the assessment, 57 percent of the girls had poor knowledge about menstrual hygiene, and over 77 percent reported re-using the materials they used to contain their flow—which were not reusable pads.
Period poverty is when a girl cannot afford menstrual products during menstruation, which is approximately four days every four weeks. Such girls would often resort to unhygienic practices. Period poverty is not peculiar to Nigeria and Africa, A 2022 report by Procter and Gamble indicates nearly one in five girls in the United States have missed school due to lack of access to period products.
In October 2021, a non-governmental organization in Ibadan, Oyo State, Pad a Queen, started assisting women and teenage schoolgirls in rural and underserved communities in various schools, correctional facilities and orphanages to ensure they have access to a reusable pad.
They visited Iroko Community School in October 2021 and Adifase Community School in May 2023: within that time frame, over 1,500 girls and women have benefited.
“About 80 percent of our beneficiaries are teenage schoolgirls. We have visited nine schools and have distributed over 5,000 reusable pads to women and girls,” says Saheedat Adetayo, the Executive Director of Pad a Queen Initiative (PAQi).
The pads come five a pack.
According to Adetayo, the initiative found evidence in 2023 that absenteeism related to menstrual hygiene in school has reduced by 97% (this was discovered during a follow up that was done after the distribution of the pads in addition to the feedback from the school).
That means nearly all the girls getting reusable pads did not have to stay away school once their period came around.
“The girls recorded more participation in class and extracurricular activities,” says Adetayo. “In addition to that, most of our beneficiaries stopped using unhygienic materials [old wrappers, rags, newspaper] as substitutes for expensive disposable pads.”
Stressing the impact of the free pad drive in schools, Adetayo says, “We have cases of girls who stay out of school until their period is over. The principal of a community secondary school in Eleta, Ibadan Oyo State lamented the high rate of absenteeism among the girls. We conducted a study and our findings revealed that 99 percent of the 100 girls who received free pads in that same school recorded a significant increase in participation in class and extracurricular activities during menstruation.
“We also organize special visitations to correctional facilities and orphanages where we distribute free pads and soaps for proper maintenance of the pads.”
Limited funding, fewer visits
Financing the reusable pad has been a major limitation. “Our plan is to expand our pad production into a medium-scale social enterprise that will provide access to affordable and sustainable pads for women and girls in Nigeria, particularly in the Southwest,” Adetayo explains.
“But we are constrained by finance. However, we remain determined to champion the delivery of a sustainable solution to period poverty in Nigeria.”
With a very high number of girls who miss school due to menstruation, the organization is only able to visit schools three times a year—during the commemorations of Menstrual Hygiene Day, International Women’s Day, and International Day of The Girl Child. Also, they can visit schools in only Ibadan and not the whole of Oyo State or the southwest region.
Many organizations are distributing pads in various schools in different parts of the country, some disposable and others are reusable. Most of them however often distribute once a year. Some of them are Sanitary Pad Media Campaign (SPMC), Sanitary Aid Initiative in Lagos, Padup Creations in Niger State, Virtuous Pads and Padup Africa in Abuja, Alora Pads in Akwa Ibom, AIDS Healthcare foundation (AHF) in Ekiti.
For PaQI, the distribution is not just a one-off, it must be followed up.
“We visit each beneficiary school or community school at intervals,” says Adetayo.
“First, we visit six weeks after the pad drive to give room for the beneficiaries to have their periods and use the pads. Then, we visit again after another six weeks, that’s three months. By then, the beneficiaries would have used the pads for at least two periods. Then we visit them every three months to follow up with their experiences using the pads.”
Halima Akindele, who lives in Lagos, has recently finished secondary school. She said missing school due to menstruation was not common amongst her friends as their parents and guardians usually provided money for disposable pads. She was quick to add, “Throughout my six years in Secondary school, an organization came to give us a pad only once and it was just two pieces of pad. They came after I left and gave my sister four pieces.”
A report by UNICEF Nigeria in June indicates many girls in developing countries are unable to practise good menstrual health with dignity in their schools and communities.
The Advocacy and Marketing Manager, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Nigeria Steve Aborisade urged the government to make sanitary pads free for women and girls of reproductive age as a means of addressing the problem of menstrual health management. “We have noted how the lack of access to safe menstrual products can increase girls’ risks of HIV infection and how this disrupts their education,” he said.
Intervention linked with research
Relating how the pad benefits the girls, Adetayo says, “We don’t just distribute free pads to women and girls, we conduct quantitative study of the impacts of our menstrual products and education in the academic performance and social participation of our schoolgirls who have benefited from the pad drive.
“Asides giving them reusable sustainable menstrual products, the organization also equips the girls with the knowledge of menstrual health and hygiene management, to enable them take charge of their menstrual life and manage their menstruation with dignity.”
What are reusable pads, one would wonder. She explains, “Our washable and reusable pads, made from locally sourced eco-friendly materials, are designed in compliance with the specifications of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Each Happy Periods Pad is reusable for 12 months. Thereafter, we encourage the women and girls to dispose of it properly. Women and girls need not worry about getting stained or be financially burdened every month to buy a disposable pad.”