This is a public service announcement: having a period should never compromise your education or career. At Natracare, we hold this belief firmly and so do our partners at Just a Drop, but unfortunately for people without access to sustainable period care, this isn’t a reality. It’s estimated that 500 million people live in period poverty without access to period products or private, hygienic places to change their period products during menstruation.

When people with periods lack access to adequate menstrual hygiene, they may be forced to miss days of school or work, eating into their education, career progression, and opportunities every single month.

Today is International Women’s Day, a day dedicated to the conversation of and action towards women’s rights and equality. While we’ve made progress towards gender equality across the globe, there’s still a long way to go. One way that Natracare and Just a Drop believe we can take steps towards achieving a more equal society for women and other people with periods* is by increasing access to sustainable period products.

Levelling the playing field

Providing affordable access to period products and educating young people about period care are essential first steps towards reducing period poverty and creating a more equal society for women. Providing free period products for students so that they’re able to stay in school during their periods will also help them to complete their education and build economic security for themselves.

Just a Drop works with schools in Uganda, Nicaragua, Kenya, and Zambia to provide adequate water and private, clean changing facilities, as well as educating students about period care and puberty. They also provide sustainable and reusable period products to students and teach them how to make reusable pads themselves. Understanding your body and having the facilities to take care of your period with dignity is essential for empowering women throughout their education and lifetime. It ensures that people with periods have as equal opportunities to learn as their peers who don’t menstruate

Securing our future

Educating young people about the plastic in conventional period products and the sustainable period product options available is also important. By becoming empowered to make more sustainable choices, people with periods are able to not only build themselves a more economically sound future, but also a more sustainable one.

At Natracare, we’re so pleased to partner with Just a Drop, and to support their goal of creating a more equal, sustainable society for all.

*Not everyone with a period is a woman or girl, and not all women and girls have periods. People who don’t identify as women or girls but still have periods are also affected by the threat of period poverty.

If this is a topic that you'd like to learn more about, please watch the webinar that Just a Drop ran for International Women's Day here: