‘I won’t be ashamed’: Nigerian women fight ‘period poverty’

For years, whenever Veronica Ogar’s period began, she would grab a piece of old cloth she kept for the purpose, fold it into layers, and stuff it into her underwear. Over the following days, she would keep to herself, avoiding the local market where she earned a living – her makeshift pad was barely fit for purpose – instead taking a financial hit while her period lasted. 

“If I risk going to the market and my clothes get stained, I would be the joke of the whole community,” she says, highlighting the societal pressure common in the region. It had never occurred to her she even had a choice. “It’s what I had been