Rabat – “New Era,” the new face of the fight against period poverty in Morocco, is launching a campaign to shed light on period poverty and the socio-economic disparities resulting from limited access to hygiene products.
Sponsored by Moroccan Oum Keltoum Foundation, the New Era movement aims to provide hundreds of girls with free medical checkups and to distribute 300 menstrual underwear units and menstrual pain medication in Ouinskra village, located 80 kilometers from Marrakech.
Launched by Moroccan activists Nada Chaddadi and Meryem El Mounib, in partnership with the BMCI Foundation, the movement aims to raise public awareness of period poverty, and alleviate cultural and socio-economic disparities young Moroccan girls and women suffer as a result of period poverty.
Period poverty is the lack of access to menstrual hygienic products, a persisting issue on the global scale.
Global human right groups estimate that almost 500 million people suffer from period poverty.
Period poverty can result in a higher school absence rate among girls who can’t afford menstrual hygiene products.
The problem does not stop at the school level, as women around the world suffer professional setbacks because of lack of access to menstrual pain medications. In turn, this creates social and economic disparity further aggravated by the stigma surrounding the issue.
The stigma surrounding menstruation also creates a lack of visibility on an issue that causes 49% girls even in developed countries such as the UK to miss an entire day of school.
Morocco suffers an acute lack of data on the issue of period poverty, primarily because of the cultural stigma around menstruation.
The few reports that do exist indicate that women in Morocco mostly have negative experiences of their first menstruation.
Lack of data-driven policies will remain a salient factor putting thousands of girls at risk of further socio-economic disparities.
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