The charity Period Poverty estimates that 137,000 children have missed school because they can’t afford menstrual products.. As a woman and a mother, it makes me angry and breaks my heart to know girls are missing out on education and opportunities. Bravo to Scotland, where there is now a legal duty on local authorities to provide free items such as tampons and sanitary pads to “anyone who needs them”. But did you know that there is also hygiene poverty in the UK?