We have partnered with WASH United
to teach girls and women about period taboos, proper hygiene,
and how to make safe reusable pads.

Our Menstrual Health Ambassadors are located in
Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Liberia.

The Red Flower Code

fighting period poverty

Period poverty and lack of menstrual hygiene resources is a roadblock to countless opportunities for young women everywhere. The first and most important of these is the right to an equal education.

In the U.S., girls miss as much as a quarter of the school year or more because they don't have the period products they need to leave the house. This causes failures, punishments, and dropouts. Stella's Girls holds donation drives and distributes menstrual health kits to help. These include pads, tampons, bras, and underwear that would be impossible to get otherwise. 

In Liberia, if a girl's uniform is ruined because she doesn't have period products, she can't go to school until she has another uniform. So most stay home during their periods, putting them far behind in school. 

Girls' education isn't all that period poverty puts at risk. Greater than 85% of African girls don't have access to clean water, soap, or period products. There isn't any education on feminine hygiene and keeping clean. Girls don't have the knowledge or resources to take care of themselves properly.

Without having the right products, girls and women risk infection, death, and infertility. The things women in Liberian villages are forced to use to stop blood flow onto their clothes or in their homes include dirty rags, corn husks, and animal feces. Only the rich can get period products from the low stock stores have.

To help our girls in Liberia, we have an ongoing campaign there to teach menstrual health management and instruct young women to make reusable, washable pads that last up to a year.

The remarkable part of this program is that each group of young women pays it forward and teaches the next and larger group. This demonstration of Educate. Empower. Lead. is a wonderful demonstration of the core beliefs of Stella's Girls and opens up a world where girls are able to go to school, when they couldn't without period products.