Cultural stigmas about periods

“There is so much taboo and stigma around periods that it is very difficult for these women to ask or pay for period products,” explains Pemberton. “They don’t have the confidence, language or vocabulary to discuss periods.”

When Pemberton runs awareness sessions in camps in Lebanon, she says she can see the anger in women when they discover how they haven’t been allowed to talk about something so natural and normal as having a period. “They leave our sessions excited, with the taboo having been slightly broken,” she says. “Then they go home to male partners and parents who enforce the stigmas again, telling them not to bring it up – that it’s a woman’s problem.”

If women and girls in refugee camps feel ashamed to talk about their periods, there is a risk they will suffer in silence through period poverty, potentially keeping them from being able to do things such as caring for their families or attending school.

Solutions for a complex issue

Period poverty in refugee camps cannot have a one-size-fits-all approach as there will be individual needs for each woman and girl dependent on their situation, culture and location. It’s a complex issue requiring a complex solution.

“Individuals should have the choice to use what they are most comfortable with,” says Robel. “I have had people say to me, ‘Beggars can’t be choosers.’ This is unacceptable. I am particular about the period products I use. I want what works best for my period. Women and menstruators living in camps and settlements should be able to choose what works best for them.”

For women living in camps with running water and private spaces, reusable pads and cups could mean they are less dependent on a flow of disposable products each month. However, for people living transiently in camps without private toilets or running water, disposable products would work better.

For example, Emma Lambert, founder of The Pachamama Project, a non-profit recruiting volunteers to sew reusable pads for refugees and asylum seekers, visited the Global Expo Centre in Poland in April to see how her project could help menstruating people fleeing Ukraine.

“It’s a big warehouse and there are camp beds laid out as far as the eye could see,” she says. “Thousands of people with no privacy. There was one block of showers and four washing machines for 4,000 people. It’s an appalling situation.” For these women who didn’t have the facilities to use reusables, Lambert collected and distributed disposable pads.

A stark snapshot of period poverty in refugee camps around the world