00:00Menstruation is natural, yet many Malaysian girls still suffer in silence.
00:06In secondary schools, access to pads is still a problem.
00:10Nearly one in five girls miss school because of it.
00:15In fact, period poverty begins at home.
00:18Some parents who cannot afford sanitary pads are forced to keep their daughters at home
00:23instead of sending them to school.
00:25When girls don't have access to sanitary pads, the impact is immediate and long-term.
00:32They miss school, their grades decline, some eventually drop out, affecting their future opportunities.
00:40Period poverty is real, and it's not only about affordability.
00:43For many young girls, the stigma is as damaging as the lack of access itself.
00:48When it comes to period and menstruation, do you feel sad to talk about it?
00:53Yes, I do sometimes because...
00:56It's not possible to talk about it openly in the public.
01:01There's this one day, I had no pads. It was my time, menstruation.
01:06I asked everyone, my friends, my teachers, they had nothing.
01:09And I was panicking. What do I do?
01:14That made me so scared to go to school.
01:17That's the reason why I feel so anxious sometimes.
01:21It could leak. People could see me as disgusting.
01:25These everyday challenges – worry, discomfort, self-consciousness, and silence – show how period poverty affects schoolgirls long before anyone
01:36notices.
01:37To break this cycle, Atlas Vending introduced a simple but powerful idea.
01:43A discrete way for girls to access sanitary pads at school whenever they needed them.
01:49With a simple tap, students can redeem a free pad instantly.
01:54No hiding. No fear. Just the confidence of knowing help is there.
01:59When I'm in the middle of the period, I can still take the touch card here and take it.
02:04So, I don't have to worry if I don't take it from home.
02:08Teachers shared that ever since the hygiene aid machine was placed in the school, attendance among girls has improved.
02:15Counselors also shared that during their sessions with the girls, they expressed feeling more confident and less anxious about coming
02:22to school during their period.
02:25Atlas Vending machines have now been deployed in 10 schools across KL with plans to expand to 200 schools nationwide
02:33by year's end.
02:35Breaking stigma starts with access, empathy, and open conversations.
02:39No girl should ever have to skip school because she can't afford a pad.
02:44Divya Raghu, FMT.
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