Girls in many African countries don't go to school when they have their period because they don't have sanitary protection.
This is one of the factors that leads to girls dropping out of school earlier than boys, despite them leading the class for years before.
I'm organising a box of san pro to be sent to women and girls I met last year when I was there blogging for Mumsnet and the Gates Foundation.
blog here
Am also looking into some long term solutions that might be interesting.
If you are interested, post here or PM me.