Period Poverty Activists, Groups & Champions of Young People
Hey Girls UK: https://www.heygirls.co.uk/
Founder Celia Hodson
“Hey Girls was founded by myself and my daughters Becky and Kate, with the philosophy that girls and young women should never have to compromise their wellbeing or their health. Having been a single parent I understand firsthand the financial strain of buying period protection when struggling to survive on benefits. The situation for women just like me hasn’t changed in twenty years, which is why we set-up Hey Girls. We seek to enrich the lives of girls and young women in the UK by exercising social and ethical responsibility in every aspect of our work—from where we source our products through to our supply chain, and the way we run our social business. How? Well that’s simple – all the profits from our Buy One Give One products go directly to help girls and young women in need – no fat cat shareholders taking a payout. So that means for every box you buy we give a box away”
Free Periods https://www.freeperiods.org/
Founder Amika George
Free Periods is a campaign, started by British teenager Amika George, that strives to end period poverty in schools. We are on a mission to ensure that NOBODY has to miss school because they have a period.
Launched in April 2017, Free Periods called on the UK government to provide free menstrual products to all children who need them. Every child has a right to their education, and periods should never, ever be a barrier. After 2 years of campaigning against the injustice of period poverty, in March 2019, the Chancellor announced that, from early 2020, every child in England will be able to access menstrual products when they need them, as free products will be provided in all schools and colleges.
Bloody Good Period https://www.bloodygoodperiod.com/
Founder Gabby Edlin
Gabby started BGP when she decided something needed to be done about the fact that very few food banks and asylum seeker drop-in centres were providing period products on a regular basis – despite a desperate need. What started as a whip-round on Facebook is now a growing enterprise with a vision to end period poverty. We are now partnered with 40 asylum seeker drop-in centres, helping more people to have bloody good periods. Read our report with Women for Refugee Women on the experiences of asylum-seeking women living in period poverty here.
Rupi Kaur https://rupikaur.com/about/
Based in Toronto, Canada, Rupi Kaur is a poet and artist whose haunting works are focused on femininity, sexual abuse, and the menstruation taboo. Last year, she went viral when Instagram removed a picture she posted because it simply showed her menstrual blood staining her pants (they later apologized for the offense).
Kaur also recently released a book called Milk and Honey , which features her drawings as well as her original poetry. One of her pieces chips away at the heavy burden women must bear when keeping quiet about their periods: “apparently it is ungraceful of me /to mention my period in public /cause the actual biology /of my body is too real.”
You can follow Kaur on Instagram (@rupikaur_), where you’ll find similar prose and beautiful art celebrating our bodies and reproductive systems. Subscribe to her YouTube channel too, where you can watch her spoken word performances that highlight the everyday struggles of women in today’s society.
Flori 