The Cycle Project, an initiative of the Africa Children's Foundation, aims to combat period poverty among adolescent girls and women in impoverished African countries. Through the distribution of sustainable menstrual hygiene kits and educational programs, The Cycle empowers young girls by reducing the health risks associated with poor menstrual hygiene, increasing school attendance, and breaking taboos around menstruation. The project is a menstrual program to bring awareness to the disparities that exist in women’s health and how they affect adolescent girls in Africa. With this project, we aim to provide young girls with the tools and resources they need to take control of their health and femininity, making the female cycle as comfortable as possible. 

In many parts of Africa, poverty continues to be a burden and an overwhelming concept. Young girls do not have access to menstrual and hygiene products. Access to clinical care and products is a social determinant of health that impacts women and adolescent girls in poor-resource countries around Africa. Many girls miss school or sometimes drop out due to a lack of sanitary products. As a nonprofit organization, we take pride in promoting gender equity and empowerment. The cycle targets three of our focus areas: education, gender equity, and health. With this project, we hope to bring awareness to period poverty through education while empowering women and girls not to feel shame when they’re on their period, but instead allow them to know that it is not shameful or taboo to express pain and advocate for themselves. Since 2022, the cycle has brought awareness to period poverty and made menstrual products accessible for hundreds of girls in  poor resource communities in Senegal and Gambia.