What’s Menstrual Hygiene Day?

Menstrual Hygiene Day (MHD) is a global advocacy platform that brings together the voices and actions of non-profits, government agencies, individuals, the private sector and the media to promote good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) for all women and girls. More specifically, MH Day:

breaks the silence, raises awareness and changes negative social norms around MHM, and
engages decision-makers to increase the political priority and catalyse action for MHM, at global, national and local levels.

Click here to learn more

This year, show your support for Menstrual Hygiene Day and The Cova Project by using one of our ‘Awareness Backgrounds’ on your next Zoom call…

Step One: Right click on the background you like and select ‘save image as’ or click the button below to download a background

Step Two: Open Zoom and enter your settings

Step Three: Click ‘Virtual Background’

Step Four: Click the ‘+’ to add a custom background

Step Five: Make sure the ‘mirror my video’ setting is unselected so your background appears correctly

Step Six: Help us spread awareness about the global issue of Period poverty

Click here to download backgrounds

You’re about to become and MHM expert with these Menstrual Hygiene Day Facts

Globally, 2.3 billion people live without basic sanitation services and in developing countries, only 27% of people have adequate handwashing facilities at home, according to UNICEF.
In Malawi the annual cost of pads can be equal to the annual cost of school fees.
In Nepal, menstruating women are seen as impure by their community and banished to huts during their cycles.
In developing communities period blood is often seen as ‘bad blood’ and women are asked to sleep in a separate bed or room to their husbands, so they don’t contaminate them.
Menstruation is a major barrier to education for girls without access to sanitary products. Young girls who do not receive an education are more likely to enter child marriages and experience an early pregnancy, malnourishment, domestic violence, and pregnancy complications as a result.
In 2019, a 14 year old Kenyan girl took her life because she was mocked by a teacher for bleeding onto her uniform because she had no access to sanitary products.
11.5 million girls in Ghana lack sanitary management facilities.
113 million girls in India are at risk of dropping out of school the moment they first get their period.

What is The Cova Project?

Let’s not treat this like a bad first date, we want you to get to know the real us. The Cova Project was founded by sisters, Geena and Caillie Dunne. In 2015, Geena worked in Namibia, on the West coast of Africa where she saw the problem of Period Poverty first hand. Due to Geena suffering from a chronic illness for over ten years, she cleverly recruited her sister’s sharp brain and together they decided to combat the issue. Using a network of women across Africa, the two have distributed over 6,000 menstrual cups and with their amazing local partners, are changing the lives of girls who miss out on school and work when menstruating. The Cova Project currently works in Liberia, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa.

It’s reported that girls in sub-Saharan Africa can miss up to 50 days of school a year because of a lack of sanitary products. Why should that be the case when there’s such a simple and affordable solution.

Skip a fresh juice this week and for $7 provide a girl with 10 years of safe sanitary care…
Skip your UberEats this week and for $25 support Educators and Trainers in empowering young women!
Skip your Friday night dinner and drinks and for $75 give a group of ten girls a chance to have a complete education.
Or give monthly and every time you get your period, know that you’ve given a girl in Malawi the chance to experience hers comfortably and not at the cost of her future.