Book IWD Speaker: Masturah Nantume

Masturah Nantume, a first year university student is a menstrual-equity advocate, impact-driven leader, and survivor of period poverty whose lived experience fuels her mission to create lasting change for girls and women. Growing up in an underprivileged community with limited access to menstrual products, she experienced the shame, disruption, and inequality caused by period poverty firsthand. Rather than allowing these barriers to define her, through support, she transformed them into a catalyst for leadership, innovation, and community impact.

As the founder and Director of Youngsters Appeal (YSA), Nantume leads a non profit organization committed to preventing period poverty through sustainable solutions, education, and empowerment. Under her leadership, YSA combines menstrual-health conversations, education opportunities, and the production of reusable menstrual products—initiatives that have already supported over 800 girls. She champions a model grounded in dignity, sustainability, and long-term community involvement, ensuring menstrual-health access is not just a temporary intervention but a pathway to opportunity.

Nantume highlights the importance of giving in ways that empower rather than simplify, stereotype, or commodify girls. Drawing on critiques of mainstream “girl empowerment” narratives, she argues that efforts to invest in girls must avoid reducing them to abstract symbols or economic returns. Nantume emphasizes the need for grounded, community-led solutions that respect girls’ lived realities. She believes that giving must be intentional: giving power, giving voice, giving space, and giving dignity—not giving girls a pre-written script of what empowerment should look like.

Nantume’s speaking engagements weave together personal narrative, research-informed insight, and tools that audiences can apply in their schools, organizations, or communities. She speaks on the lived realities of period poverty, the psychological and educational impacts of menstrual inequity, and the role of youth-led initiatives in reshaping gender-equality movements. Nantume explores how social enterprises can support non-profits, drawing from her experience, advocacy, and community collaboration within YSA.

Her work has gained recognition across multiple countries, earning her opportunities to speak at conferences, youth forums, and leadership events. She has been honored with several awards for her activism and commitment to community development. She continues to inspire young people to believe in their ability to lead change, regardless of their background.

Her message is clear: menstrual equity is a human-rights issue, and when we give power, opportunity, and dignity we gain a future where girls are not just beneficiaries of empowerment but co-creators of change.

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