A period should never stop a girl's education.
65% of girls and women in Kenya cannot afford sanitary products. The result is missed school, health risks, and a stigma that silences half the population.
What Is Period Poverty?
Period poverty is the lack of access to menstrual products, hygiene facilities, and education needed to manage menstruation safely and with dignity. It affects girls and women who cannot afford sanitary products, who lack access to private, clean toilets, or who have grown up without accurate information about their own bodies.
In high-income countries, period poverty is increasingly recognized as a public health issue. In Kenya, it is a daily reality for millions.
The Scale of the Problem in Kenya
Approximately 65% of girls and women in Kenya cannot afford sanitary pads. For families living on less than $3.20 a day, a monthly pack of sanitary pads — which can cost between 50 and 100 Kenyan shillings — is simply not a budget priority when set against food, school fees, and transport.
Without products, girls improvise — using rags, mattress foam, leaves, or mud, which provide inadequate protection and can cause infection. Many simply stay home.
The Impact on Girls’ Education
The connection between period poverty and school attendance is direct and well-documented. Girls without menstrual products miss school during their periods — typically three to five days every month. Over the course of a school year, this adds up to more than a month of missed instruction.
The cumulative effect is devastating:
- Girls fall behind in their coursework
- They miss exams and assignments
- They become disengaged and disconnected from their peers
- Teachers may not understand or accommodate absences
- Girls begin to see themselves as less capable
Studies estimate that up to 20% of girls in Kenya drop out of school entirely due to period poverty. That dropout is rarely attributed to menstruation in school records — it is masked as “family reasons” or simply an absence that becomes permanent.
The Stigma That Compounds the Problem
Period poverty is not just a material problem — it is wrapped in stigma that makes it harder to solve. In many Kenyan communities, menstruation is considered shameful, dirty, or taboo. Girls are not supposed to talk about it. Boys are not taught about it. Teachers may be uncomfortable addressing it.
This silence means that girls who are struggling often cannot ask for help. They are embarrassed to explain their absences. They feel alone in an experience that is, in fact, universal.
The stigma also means that solutions are slow in coming: communities that don’t talk openly about menstruation don’t advocate openly for the infrastructure — private toilets, products, disposal facilities — that girls need to manage it.
What Effective Solutions Look Like
Period poverty is solvable. The interventions that work combine products, education, and community change:
Reusable menstrual products are more cost-effective over time than disposables and reduce the ongoing financial burden on families. Kenya Works’s Makini Pad kits and period panties are locally made, high quality, and designed to last for years.
Menstrual health education gives girls accurate information about their bodies, helps them manage their periods with confidence, and reduces shame. It also needs to reach boys — when boys understand menstruation, they are less likely to mock or stigmatize girls, and more likely to be allies.
School infrastructure matters: private, clean toilets with disposal facilities allow girls to manage their periods at school without anxiety or embarrassment.
Economic solutions that give families more income reduce the pressure that makes period products unaffordable in the first place.
How Kenya Works Responds
Kenya Works’s MHH Works program addresses period poverty directly and comprehensively. Through the Makini Pad program, we:
- Distribute reusable Makini Pad kits and period panties to girls in schools across Kenya
- Provide menstrual health education that is shame-free, accurate, and age-appropriate
- Train boys as allies through the Boxers for Boys initiative
- Employ women locally to produce Makini products, turning a health solution into economic opportunity
- Advocate within communities for the infrastructure and attitudes that allow girls to thrive
In 2025, 33,000 girls received Makini products. Each kit represents months of school attended, tests taken, and a future kept intact.
Before I had a Makini Pad kit, I stayed home during my period. I missed so much. Now I go every day. My teacher says my marks have improved.
— Student, Western Kenya