World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2025

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 Fatou was a bus conductor in Dakar.

Every day, she jumped off and on the moving bus, shouting stops, collecting fares, and swinging her coin pouch like it was part of her body.

She had mastered the chaos of the roads, the dust, the insults, the heavy sun.

But what she hadn’t mastered, what still caught her off guard was her period.

She would feel it coming like a slow storm. The backache. The wave of nausea. The hot flash behind her eyes.
But in her line of work, there was no break. No rest. No clean restroom nearby.

She would double-pad. Wear black. Whisper prayers. And pretend.

One Thursday morning, she wasn’t fast enough.
The bleeding came heavier than usual. She felt it soak through there, in the middle of her route, on a packed bus with thirty pairs of eyes.

Her heart dropped.

But before the panic set in, a woman sitting by the window tapped her shoulder gently.

“Sister,” she said, “it is okay.”

She handed Fatou her shawl. Shielded her. Whispered for the driver to pause.

Minutes later, another woman from the bus came with a pack of pads, she had picked it up from the ‘Red Box’ at the transit stop. The community had started placing period care kits at public stations. Quiet. Unnoticed. Lifesaving.

Fatou cleaned up. Changed. And went back to work with her head a little higher, her heart a little steadier.

That evening, she dropped off a pack of pads into the Red Box herself. And another the next week. She started carrying extras.

Because she now knew there was no need to pretend anymore.

This is what a Period-Friendly World looks like.

🩸 Where dignity meets the street.
🩸 Where public places are not hostile to women.
🩸 Where women show up for each other without judgment, without shame.

This Menstrual Hygiene Day, remember:
Aside products, policies, public empathy, and practical action matter.
We are designing a world where no woman has to suffer in silence.

From Fatou’s bus stop to your own space
We need a #PeriodFriendlyWorld.

Because no one should have to pretend their body is not doing what it was made to do.

If your workplace or school had a menstrual dignity policy, what should it include?



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