Two girls smiling and laughing playing with red and white balloons

Menstrual Hygiene Day

On Menstrual Hygiene Day 2026, we're working to break the silence around periods, tackle the stigma often associated with them, and raise awareness of the importance of menstrual hygiene for women, girls and people who menstruate around the world. 

When is Menstrual Hygiene Day 2026, and what is it?

Menstrual Hygiene Day takes place on 28 May every year. It's a chance to highlight the importance of menstrual care, and raise awareness about the issues faced by those who don't have access to menstrual products.

Access to menstrual products, safe, hygienic spaces in which to use them, and the right to manage menstruation without shame or stigma, is essential for anyone who menstruates.

But for too many, that's not the reality.

Menstrual Hygiene Day theme 2026

The theme for Menstrual Hygiene Day is "Together for a #PeriodFriendlyWorld".

More ways to get involved this Menstrual Hygiene Day

Susan, from Uganda, has enjoyed receiving sanitary pads and learning about managing her periods at ActionAid workshops.

Donate to help end period poverty

Donate to help end period poverty
Girls from the Bangladesh research team spending time together.

Learn more about our work ending period poverty

Learn more about our work ending period poverty
ActionAid ran the School Enrollment Campaign, aimed at addressing the various challenges that students face in Nepal.

Learn about periods and girls' education

Learn about periods and girls' education

This Menstrual Hygiene Day, donate to help end period injustice.

Many of us know what it’s like to lend a tampon or a pad to someone - anyone - who needs one.

It doesn’t matter if it’s your sister, a friend, or a complete stranger in the loo. It’s an unwritten rule that we always help out in an emergency, if we can.

What about a girl living in a refugee camp in Uganda? Would you help her out too, if you could?

Around the world, thousands of women, girls and people who menstruate live without access to the safe menstrual products they need, putting their health and safety at risk.

But ActionAid is working to end period poverty.

So if you know what it’s like to need a tampon or a pad, and to be helped out by a stranger, please pass the favour on. Help to end period poverty for good.

No girl should be held back because of period poverty. Please donate £7 a month to help girls stay in school and manage their periods with dignity. 

End period poverty

Periods and girls' education

It’s estimated that one in 10 girls in Africa will miss school when they have their periods. When girls miss several days of school a month, they are more likely to drop out altogether, putting them at greater risk of early child marriage.

ActionAid provides schoolgirls with sanitary pads and works with communities to improve access to toilets so that girls are able to continue their schooling uninterrupted. In our girls’ clubs and girls' rooms in schools, we help girls get information about periods, sex and pregnancy, so that they are better informed about their bodies.

Keeping girls in school in Rwanda with sanitary towels

Marcelene is 17 and lives in Rwanda. Her family can't afford sanitary towels, so like many girls at her school she had to stay at home when she had her period.  

“I have a very big flow so I felt uncomfortable to come to school," Marcelene said. "I don’t want to dirty myself." 

Missing school has had a negative impact on Marcelene's grades as it meant she couldn't sit some of her exams. But now, ActionAid has provided her school with a room where girls can access sanitary pads. 

“It’s a nice room. If you get your period at school you go and change and go back to classes. If I use a pad, I feel so good and comfortable because it soaks the blood so well. If use the cloth I’m always tense that its going to pass through my uniform and stain it, then the boys see it and it becomes the talk of the day,” she said. 

“I think it would be good if all schools had a safe room because it helps so many girls, especially those who can’t afford pads from poor families. It encourages them to stay in school.”

Read more about periods and girls' education

Periods and humanitarian disasters 

Women who have lost everything as a result of humanitarian crises tell us that amongst the essential items they need most are sanitary pads, wipes and soap.

Without menstrual products, women, girls and people who menstruate are forced to use improvised materials to manage their periods, including torn pieces of clothing and rags, which can cause infections. 

In humanitarian emergencies, ActionAid provides essentials kits which can include soap, menstrual products and clean underwear, helping people manage their periods safely, and with dignity. 

Supporting refugees with menstrual products

13-year-old Wesal's mother was killed in an airstrike on their home in Syria. Her father and grandmother tried to take Wesal and her sisters to Jordan – but at the border her father was arrested and taken back to Syria.

Now, Wesal and her three sisters are being brought up by their grandmother, Azziza, in Jordan. Without their mum and dad, the family are struggling to get by. 

Wesal started her period last year when she was 12. Now, Azziza has to face the agonising choice of whether to buy food or menstrual products for her granddaughters when they have their periods. 

Read more about periods in humanitarian disasters

Sanitary pads changing lives in Malawi

In Malawi, ActionAid is providing training for communities in how to make reusable, low-cost sanitary pads. These simple sanitary pads are changing lives.

Before, girls who couldn't afford sanitary pads often felt unable to go to school because they were teased by boys if their clothes became stained.

Now, not only are girls able to stay in school, but their others in the community are building long-term businesses by selling their extra pads at the market. This provides women with opportunities to earn an income and support their families. 

Sewing reusable sanitary pads

Ruth, from Malawi, is a mother of two who makes reusable sanitary pads for girls in Namalusa village, Malawi.

ActionAid provided the sewing machine, and training on how to use it, to her and other women in the community who were struggling to make ends meet. So far, the women taking part in this project have made 3,000 pads, to be distributed to 600 girls. 

"I think the program is good," Ruth says.

I’ve benefitted from it, and others are benefitting from it,"

One of the girls who has received pads came to her to thank her and say that she was doing better at school because of the pads.

Ruth said: "I felt good in my heart, because I never expected I’d be able to make such a difference."

     High school students Ingabire, 20 (left) and Yvette, 18 (right) during a workshop on period rights as part of a three-day summer camp in Nyanza District, organised by ActionAid Rwanda. Christie ​Ntwari/​ActionAid 

    Page updated 1 April 2026