Diana Sierra is the Co-founder of Be Girl Inc., a global social enterprise dedicated to ending ‘period poverty’ and advancing menstrual equity through innovative design, youth-centered education, and rigorous data systems. In this interview to mark the 2025 International Menstrual Hygiene Day, she speaks about Be Girl’s work, especially its recent baseline study conducted in Nigeria to understand the state of menstrual health and hygiene in the country.
To begin, what services and products does Be Girl offer?
Thank you. At Be Girl, our mission is to bridge the access gap in Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) by supporting NGOs, UN agencies, and governments in their MHM efforts, offering sustainable period products, menstruation education curricula, and data collection tools that enable them to achieve their global impact goals in health, education, gender equity, and more.
Our curriculum and SmartCycle® menstrual tracker are essential to breaking taboos and promoting good menstrual health. Be Girl distributes a line of sustainable menstrual products, including our PeriodPanty™, a 2-in-1 product that combines underwear with built-in menstrual protection through a pocket that holds absorbent material for menstrual flow. Our portfolio includes a reusable pad, FlexiPad™, FitCup®, and a medical-grade silicone menstrual cup with a sterilization case. We have developed a data collection toolkit and can support partners in data analysis to help their organizations measure the impact of their interventions and build the necessary evidence base to help mobilize resources to scale.
In which countries does Be Girl currently operate?
Our mission has reached over one million girls and women across 36 countries, mainly in Africa, with Menstrual Health products and Education, including impactful partnerships with governments and donors in Mozambique, Angola, and Ivory Coast. We have co-created national Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) curricula with the Ministries of Education and Health in these countries. These curricula now serve as the foundation for all public MHH efforts. We recently launched our operations in Nigeria by conducting a baseline study to understand the local context for informed programming interventions.
You said that Be Girl recently conducted a baseline in Nigeria. What were the major findings?
The survey revealed, among others, that while many girls initially struggled to explain how ovulation relates to fertility, they became able to do so more confidently by the end of the workshop. The boys also became more comfortable discussing reproductive topics, with a few boys expressing that they would be able to talk with a future partner about family planning.
Moreover, the intervention resulted in significant improvements in menstrual health knowledge, and attitudes among adolescent girls and boys. For instance, before the workshop, many girls expressed discomfort discussing menstruation, particularly around boys, and some associated their period with embarrassment or fear. But after the intervention, more girls reported feeling confident, or at least more neutral, talking about their period, whereas for boys, the workshop helped to normalize menstruation as a biological process.
“Some who had previously viewed it with discomfort or confusion now expressed a willingness to support menstruating peers or family members.
What Poor access to products and education worsen menstrual poverty in Nigeria — Be Girl Inc.
First, it is cheering that the draft National Policy on Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management, which has been under development for some years, is now undergoing regional reviews. This is significant progress, as it guides the actions and decisions on menstrual health and hygiene management in the country. However, Nigeria lacks a standardized national curriculum to anchor MHH programming across sectors and actors even though, according to the ex-minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, over 37 million Nigerian women and girls still lack access to adequate menstrual products.
We believe Nigeria has the capacity to redress the situation to ensure menstrual equity for women and girls, and we are eager to offer support as a technical assistance partner to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. Because the Ministries of Education and Health also play a crucial role in the sector, we recommend that a coalition of these ministries be set up to co-create a robust, context-specific MHHM curriculum that can serve as the backbone of nationwide interventions.
The Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed globally every May 28. What is the theme for 2025?
The Menstrual Hygiene Day or MH Day started in 2014 to help break the silence and build awareness about the fundamental role that good Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) plays in helping women and girls reach their full potential. The theme for Menstrual Hygiene Day this year is: “Together for a #PeriodFriendlyWorld” and underscores the importance of collaboration to address the problem of menstrual poverty, beliefs and practices that promote exclusion, stigma and harmful traditions that undermine the dignity of women.
Against the backdrop of the baseline findings, what is Be Girl’s take on way forward?
The way forward can be summarized in four key themes: expand comprehensive menstrual health education for girls and boys; engage parents, educators, and communities in menstrual health awareness since adolescents do not learn in isolation; improve access to safe and sustainable menstrual products and strengthen national and local menstrual health systems.
The Menstrual Health Project in Makoko provided girls and boys with more than just information, it gave them language, tools, and confidence to better understand and navigate menstruation. It also offered a window into what remains unfinished: persistent stigma, uneven access to products, and the absence of ongoing support systems that extend beyond a single session.
To build on this progress, we must move from individual interventions to systemic solutions. That means embedding menstrual health in national curricula, supporting community-led delivery models, offering girls real choices in product access, and giving boys the tools to become active allies.
Menstrual health is not a niche topic-it is foundational to gender equity, health, and educational opportunity. With the right investment, programs like this can serve as powerful entry points to lasting, scalable change.
Finally, menstrual health should be embedded in national policies on health, education, and gender equity, and supported through long-term investments in local delivery systems. This includes funding for training, materials, staff, and coordination mechanisms across schools and ministries. Collaboration between government and civil society will be essential to ensure that efforts are sustainable and responsive to local realities.
Be the first to comment