The Secret Shame No Girl Should Carry

The Hidden Crisis of Period Poverty

There is a kind of poverty that does not make headlines.

It is not widely discussed in the news or debated in parliaments. Many people who could help have simply never had to think about it.

It hides in silence, shame, and in a girl’s decision to stay home from school one week out of every month because she has nothing to protect her dignity.

I have stood in villages in Kenya and looked into the eyes of women and girls living this reality. I have heard what they do not say out loud—the fear, the humiliation, and the impossible choices they are forced to make simply because they were born without access to something as basic as a sanitary pad.

This is period poverty.

In the communities where we work, it is not a minor inconvenience. It is a crisis that can determine whether a girl stays in school or drops out, whether a family remains stable or falls apart under the weight of poverty and shame, and whether a young woman is protected or exposed to unimaginable risk.

What Poverty Forces People to Do

Across Kenya, many women and girls cannot reliably afford sanitary products.

When a family has no money for pads, girls may miss school every month. Over the course of a school year, those absences can add up to weeks of lost learning, lost opportunity, and lost potential. But the consequences extend far beyond missed classes.

In some of the poorest communities, girls and women are pushed into transactional relationships, exchanging sex for money to purchase sanitary products or simply to help their families survive another week.

This is not an isolated occurrence. It has been documented, acknowledged, and quietly happening for years while much of the world has looked away.

The oldest child in a family often carries the heaviest burden. She may be expected to provide when a father has lost work, when a family has been abandoned, or when there is simply no other option.

Some people turn to alcohol to numb the pain of circumstances they cannot fix. Some girls, including those in their early teens, are forced into situations no child should ever face simply to survive.

This is happening right now to real women and real girls.

I have witnessed the effects firsthand, and I have not been able to look away since.

A Different Kind of Help

At Positiviti Foundation, we do not believe in offering temporary assistance that leaves people just as dependent as they were before. We believe in giving people the tools they need to stand on their own—and standing beside them while they do it.

That is why we are developing a program with three essential components. A woman is not simply a body with a physical need. She is a whole person, and she deserves to be treated like one.

The Cup

We are introducing reusable menstrual cups—a safe, hygienic solution that can last for years.

For a woman or girl who struggles to afford sanitary products every month, a reusable cup can help end the recurring financial emergency.

It can mean no longer choosing between attending school and protecting her dignity. It can also reduce the need to rely on unsafe or ineffective materials simply to get through the week.

The Training

We do not want to simply distribute menstrual cups and disappear.

Women will be trained not only to use and care for the cups safely, but also to teach other women in their communities. Through this model, participants can become trusted community health educators and help expand the program from village to village.

For women who want to pursue an additional opportunity, we also plan to connect them with our existing microloan program.

This can help women build small businesses, distribute menstrual health products, earn an income, and become financially self-sufficient rather than dependent on Positiviti Foundation or anyone else.

The Healing

This is the part too many programs leave out.

Many of the women and girls we serve carry real trauma from what poverty has already forced them to endure.

Providing a physical solution is important, but it is not enough.

Alongside menstrual health support, we are working to build partnerships with organizations that can provide trauma-informed care and mental health services.

Healing should not be treated as an afterthought. It must be part of the plan from the beginning.

Health. Dignity. Independence. Healing.

That is what we are building together, one village at a time.

Why This Matters

I will not pretend that I enjoy asking people for help. I would rather simply go and do the work—and in many ways, that is exactly what we are doing.

But the truth is that we cannot reach every village, every woman, and every girl who needs this program without people who are willing to stand with us. This is not charity in the way that word is sometimes used—something that makes the giver feel good for a few minutes but creates no lasting change.

This is an investment in dignity.

It is an investment in education, health, opportunity, and freedom.

It gives a girl the chance to attend school every day of the month—not just three weeks out of four.

It gives a woman the opportunity to build a business, provide for her family, and avoid the impossible choices so many others have already been forced to make.

You have the opportunity to help change that story—not only for one woman, but also for the women she will train and the women they will go on to teach.

That is how lasting change moves through a community: person to person, with dignity restored one life at a time.

Help Us Turn Compassion Into Action

If what you have read moved you, take a moment to sit with that feeling—and then help us turn it into action.

Reach out to us. Partner with us.

Help us bring menstrual cups, education, economic opportunity, and healing to women and girls who have been waiting in silence for someone to finally see them.

They have carried this burden alone for long enough.

Let us carry it with them.