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Fighting period poverty

How hand-stitched pads and a stigma-busting comic book are trying to make women’s lives better.

Millions of women around the world lack access to safe and hygienic menstrual products. But there are people trying to change that.

We meet the British student who learned to sew in lockdown and started making reusable sanitary pads for refugees. She’s helped distribute tens of thousands of pads and is now training refugee women in Lebanon how to make money by sewing the pads themselves.

We hear about a design project inspired by tea cups which has created an efficient way of washing reusable pads.

And in India we meet the woman who is challenging the stigma around periods with a comic book that’s being read in thousands of schools around the country.

Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter: Lorna Acquah
Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Annie Gardiner
Editor: Richard Vadon

email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Reya, a student in Beirut who is sewing period pads

Available now

23 minutes

Last on

Mon 27 Nov 2023 03:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 21 Nov 2023 08:06GMT
  • Tue 21 Nov 2023 15:06GMT
  • Tue 21 Nov 2023 18:06GMT
  • Tue 21 Nov 2023 23:06GMT
  • Mon 27 Nov 2023 03:06GMT

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