16 MARCH 2017

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The Government has today published its annual poverty statistics, which reveal high levels of child poverty. Four million children in the UK are living in poverty, with 67% of these children in working families.

These statistics come in the wake of this week’s news that girls in the UK are having to miss school because their families are unable to afford sanitary protection.

Freedom4Girls, a charity which provides sanitary products to women and girls in Kenya, were contacted by a school in Leeds after concerns about teenage girls missing school.

Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society said:

“This is about poverty. It is extremely worrying to find that some young women cannot attend school for lack of sanitary products. The basics that women and girls need are simply not there. It’s why foodbanks are also asking for sanitary donations and toiletries. But perhaps more could be done in a discrete way through schools to support girls there?”

For more information about the child poverty figures, see the response from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), the leading charity campaigning for an end to child poverty in the UK.

Find out more about donating sanitary products to foodbanks with the Trussell Trust.

You can also donate to Freedom4Girls via their GoFundMe page.

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