Girls are being forced to miss school or risk their health as families struggle to afford tampons and pads for them.

The beginning of the year is particularly hard as families juggle other back-to-school costs, Salvation Army spokeswoman Major Pam Waugh said.

"Sanitary products are a basic necessity for women and should not have to be a luxury item, but many of our young Kiwi women are staying home when they have their period, or worse, making makeshift products or recycling old pads so they can still attend school," Waugh said.

"In many cases, this is leading to even more health problems, which means more time off school and additional shame and humiliation for both the girls and the parents."

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Labour MP Louisa Wall, The Salvation Army, Countdown and sanitary brand U by Kotex have been working together to highlight the struggle many women face.

Wall, who chairs government's Health Select Committee, said young women needed to be taught to talk about their needs and ask for help.

"We must continue to make feminine care products more accessible, but importantly we also need to teach and encourage our young women to be bold, overcome their fears of embarrassment and reach out to the school nurse or counsellor about needing feminine care products. We also need to make it easy and okay to ask for help.

"It's hard and sometimes embarrassing to discuss periods, but there are so many services and facilities available to help our young women. We need to keep talking about and highlighting this issue so it doesn't stay hidden from our society."

As part of The Salvation Army national appeal U by Kotex has donated 4000 packs of sanitary products, customers can buy discounted products at Countdown and are urged by the supermarket to take advantage of the special and donate through specially marked bins in store.

U by Kotex and Countdown will also match donations to a further 1000 via The Foodbank Project.

Countdown's general manager of corporate affairs Kiri Hannifin said since they started talking about this issue close to 30,000 feminine care products worth over $100,000 had been donated to The Salvation Army.

The appeal began on February 5 and runs through to February 18.