The MENstruation Foundation recently made period poverty front-page news by using some of the country’s most widely read print titles to portray what millions of South African girls and women without sanitary products have to go through every month.
South Africa (14 July 2026) – Period poverty is a real and prevalent issue in our country, robbing many women and girls of their confidence and dignity. It is an issue that demands acknowledgement, action, and widespread support – the kind the Menstruation Foundation boldly championed recently by placing a symbolic period blood stain on the front pages of The Star, The Mercury and Cape Times newspapers.
Created by Joe Public in partnership with Independent Newspapers and the MENstruation Foundation, Africa’s largest NGO distributor of free period products, the campaign transformed three of the country’s leading print titles into a visceral symbol of period poverty.
The message was unambiguous: ‘A newspaper can absorb the blood, but not the shame.’
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Period poverty forces millions of girls to substitute sanitary products with newspapers, rags and cow dung. The consequences extend far beyond hygiene. Without access to period products, a schoolgirl misses up to five days of school each month. This becomes a cumulative educational disadvantage that narrows her opportunities and deepens existing gender inequality.
More heartbreaking, oftentimes, families are forced to choose between food and period products. And in the most desperate circumstances, girls are exposed to exploitation and gender-based violence, including transactional sex in exchange for sanitary pads.
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Charity Golf Day Raises R600,000 for Table Mountain's Volunteer Heroes!The MENstruation Foundation already reaches 100,000 schoolgirls monthly through its Sanitary Pad Dispensing Machine model, with machines installed in schools across the country. However, more support is needed to reach even more girls in need. As Foundation co-founder Siv Ngesi puts it:
“We have the solution. We make the world’s most affordable high-quality sanitary pads. But we need donors and corporate sponsors to reach millions more girls. Without them, we cannot end period poverty in South Africa. Just R60 supplies a schoolgirl with pads for an entire year.”
The newspaper campaign was months in the making, requiring the ad agency’s creative team to develop realistic blood stain artwork, refined through photography and retouching, before running multiple rounds of printing tests on newsprint and high-speed press machines to achieve the striking effect readers encountered on the day.
For both the independent advertising agency and the newspaper publisher, championing the MENstruation Foundation’s mission and cause not only made period poverty front page news (as it should be), but it also plays a significant role in restoring dignity, keeping girls healthy and in school, and is essential to creating a better South Africa.
“Giving more schoolgirls access to free pads keeps them healthy and keeps them in school. We are proud to be part of an idea that uses the very material these girls are forced to use as the powerful message everyone needs to hear,” shares Independent Newspapers Group Executive for Marketing and Communication Lutfia Vayej.
R60 provides one schoolgirl with sanitary pads for a full year. To donate or enquire about corporate sponsorship, visit the MENstruation Foundation website.
Sources: Supplied
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