The sanitary pad is an unlikely sounding tool for changing people's lives for the better.
In rural Uganda the embarassment associated with having a period without access to proper sanitary products means that many girls choose to stay out of school for 4 or 5 days every month.
And if you're missing say 40 school days every year that seriously increases the chances that you'll fall behind with your schoolwork, and even drop out of school altogether.
The AFRIpad is a low cost sanitary pad that can be washed and reused. So far more than 500,000 of them have been distributed in 20 different countries.
Sanne Bolkenstein of AFRIpads spoke to This Way Up's Simon Morton.
