While exploring a Rotary convention with her daughter, Janelle Dodd found herself intrigued by a group of women working intently at sewing machines.

With a background rich in crafting heritage, Dodd and her daughter learned that these women were crafting reusable pads for a global initiative aimed at providing sustainable menstrual hygiene solutions.

“They were discussing how girls in the communities they supported were resorting to using grass, corn husks, and even rocks just to be able to attend school,” Dodd recounted.

“We left the table in shock, unaware that such circumstances existed globally, let alone on such a vast scale.”

“We realized we had the power to make a difference.”

Making a difference

For nearly a decade, Dodd has spearheaded the Ryde team of creators in Sydney’s northern region. They are part of Days for Girls, a non-profit organization committed to empowering girls worldwide by tackling period poverty.

Teams around the country make menstrual hygiene kits that contain waterproof shields, absorbent flannelette linings, soap, a washcloth and underwear.

Days for Girls sends the kits to girls who need them, mostly overseas. The kits also contain guides and brochures about their menstrual cycle and reproductive health.

“In many parts of the world, girls can’t go to school when they’re on their period because they have no protection,” Dodd said.

“There’s a lot of stigma and myths attached to periods around the world.”

On average, a woman spends 3,000 days on her period throughout their life. For many, that’s more than eight years of their life spent away from school and public life, often unable to leave their homes without stigma and shame.

Dodd travelled with a delivery team last year and recalled watching girls transition from awkward discomfort to curiosity.

“Many of them came back and said: ‘Can I please get one for my mum as well, or for my sister?’” she said.

Days for Girls teams make the kits as brightly coloured and stain-busting as possible.

“So when they’re washed and they’re hanging up on a bush or a rock to dry, it just looks like a piece of cloth. It doesn’t look like period products,” Dodd said.

The water-resistant bag holding all the elements together doubles as the “world’s smallest washing machine”, only needing a little bit of grey water and soap to clean the pads.

Paying the price for global instability

It’s estimated that at least 500 million women and girls cannot access what they need to manage their cycle, according to the international development charity, Plan International.

Their research found cost of living, conflict, climate change and hunger were deterrents to progress, with many unable to purchase sanitary pads or access clean toilets.

While many programs are targeted at girls, advocates recognise these challenges impact all people who menstruate.

Advocates say challenges for women and girls around the world are increasing, amid cuts to global aid funding.

Nayomi Kannangara, CEO of International Women’s Development Agency, said some governments that used to be supportive of gender work have stopped doing so.

Countries like the US have changed their stance on funding reproductive health rights work globally, and this has affected the way women and girls live globally.

“Particularly when it comes to reproductive health, how a woman is able to live her life is determined by the policies, the services, the support, the culture around her,” she said.

Separately, women from countries that need such funding are also the same ones who face higher health risks, such as maternal mortality, according to Bianca Collier, director of international programs at Care Australia.

According to the World Health Organization, a 15-year-old living in a country experiencing conflict or fragility has a one in 51 chance of dying from a maternal cause. If they are from a stable country, that reduces to 1 in 593.

As of 2024, the Peace Research Centre estimates that at least 676 million women and girls live within 50 kilometres of a conflict zone.

“In some of these new conflicts, there is going to be a need to scale support to communities and with a particular focus on women and girls,” Collier said.

“The more conflict there is, the more risk there is, certainly for women around the world.”

‘This is something that we can help with’

In Australia, community aid groups have also approached Days for Girls to provide kits to struggling local families.

“They can’t afford to buy breakfast for their families and period products for their girls to allow them to go to school,” Dodd said.

Her team, which has made more than 25,000 menstrual hygiene kits, is celebrating its 10-year birthday this month.

The group also teaches students to make the kits and educate them on the stigma surrounding menstruation, a service that has changed the discourse around taboo topics in schools, Dodd said.

“It turns out that a bunch of old ladies who turn up and talk about periods frees up the school community to talk about all sorts of issues.”

For Dodd, who has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community, period poverty is solvable — although she never expected it to become her passion project.

“Of all the problems in the world, there are many, and as ordinary people, there’s very little that we can do about them, but this is something that we can help with,” she said.

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