We Need To Talk About Period Solidarity

In Vanuatu with CARE, Kelsey Garlick talks about periods, education and why women supporting other women needs to extend beyond our borders.

- Kelsey Garlick

OK, I ADMIT IT, I’m bizarrely passionate about periods. I talk about mine incessantly; I angrily complain about tampons being taxed; I even wear tampon earrings at that time of the month. I started donating pads to local shelters when I realised that homeless Australian women couldn’t access them. But for all that, I admit I never thought far beyond my own coastline. Which is why I was shocked when I read that just a few hours away, girls in Vanuatu routinely miss school during their periods – not because they don’t want an education, but because of a lack of basic hygiene and understanding about their bodies. These girls – these future women – miss out on months of education every single year.

Worldwide, there are currently 31 million girls out of primary school and 34 adolescent women out of high school, according to UNESCO’s 2012