Breaking the Silence – Tackling Period Poverty and the Stigma of Advocacy.
22 September, 2026
Abstract:
At least 500 million women and girls globally lack access to the facilities they need to manage their periods (WHO, 2026). Yet despite the scale of this crisis, open conversation about menstrual health remains rare, and the communities of volunteers needed to address it remain smaller than they should be (World Health Organization & UNICEF, 2024).
Bringing together volunteers, advocates, and academics, we examine what it genuinely means to engage with period poverty as a cause, and why so many who care about it still hesitate to act. What deters people from stepping forward? How do social and professional environments shape a volunteer’s willingness to speak openly about the work they do? And what conditions allow people to move beyond discomfort and into sustained, meaningful contribution?
Menstruation continues to carry stigma across communities, cultures, and institutions. That stigma has real consequences: girls miss school, women go without the products they need, and organisations working in this space struggle to build the volunteer base their work demands. Our panellists speak candidly about their own experiences navigating these barriers.
The discussion ultimately explores the responsibilities of organisations themselves: what strategies can organisations use to tackle these taboos? How can work in this field be more effective in providing bottom-up, grassroots level change for women and young girls?
We host these discussions to further improve the quality of our impact. Honest discourse with academics, larger organisations and activists will give us insight to choose avenues for impactful change, rather than imposing generic solutions on communities.
Questions for panellists:
- What do you think is the single biggest barrier stopping people who care about period poverty from actually getting involved?
- Where does period poverty stigma come from, and who has the most power to dismantle it?
- What practical steps can organisations take to normalise this conversation internally, before they can expect volunteers to do so externally?
- What does genuine bottom-up change look like, and how do organisations avoid imposing solutions on the communities they serve?
Speakers:
Mahnoor Omer
Sara De Benedeicts
Plan International
The Cycle