A DEDICATED Coventry teacher has seen her ‘period poverty’ campaign go nationwide.
Lily Woods, teacher at Grace Academy Coventry, wants vulnerable girls to be entitled to free sanitary protection while others have joined her campaign to raise awareness of the issue.
She launched the Period Poverty Project to help students who may not be able to afford their own sanitary products.
Working with her local GPs’ surgery to collect donations, Ms Woods has herself been offering free sanitary protection to under-privileged girls who may otherwise miss school during their periods.
Among those who heard Ms Woods’ appeal for new UK legislation was Alison Coleman who runs a Weight Watchers group in Coventry.
She and her group members have since collected more than 600 pieces of sanitary wear and donated it to Ms Woods’ cause.
Many other Weight Watchers groups in the UK have since begun compiling sanitary products to be distributed.
Ms Woods and Ms Coleman plan on donating the products to schools.
Ms Coleman said: “This subject seems to have had an impact on everyone that has heard about it.
“Periods are something women don’t have a choice about. But its obvious by the amount of people who attend food banks these days, there are a lot of people out there who struggle with their finances.
“In an age where we are encouraged to empower girls from the start, for them to have interruptions to their educations because of lack of basic sanitary needs, is something that we should draw attention to.”
Women have come forward to tell their own stories about struggling without the money to afford sanitary products.
Amanda Pugh from Birmingham said: “My mum had five teenage girls and we were living hand to mouth.
“The education authorities paid for us all to have bus passes so that we could get to school.
“But every month mum struggled to buy sanitary wear for us all and that’s when going to school could become a problem.
“In an emergency, girls could visit the school nurse and ask for help, but she would charge for the sanitary wear and more often than not, I didn’t have the money so I would just go home.”
We spoke to Ms Woods last month at the first stages of her campaign.
Ms Woods said: “Over 2,000 girls in this country are entitled to free school meals and I believe they should also be entitled to free sanitary protection.
“According to a recent survey, one in ten girls in the UK can’t afford sanitary products, and one in fifteen have struggled to afford sanitary wear, so it is vital that we help them to stay in education and have the same opportunities as everyone else.
“As an Academy, we have been getting the message out there to girls that we are here to help.
“Some people may find it awkward to talk about this, but we have started a dialogue about periods so it’s something our students are not afraid to talk about.
“There are real girls in this country who miss school on a regular basis because they cannot afford sanitary protection, and we need to help them. Being able to be in school empowers women.
“Periods shouldn’t be a barrier that stops women from having the opportunity to be successful and powerful.”
Ms Woods and Ms Coleman have appealed to people all over the Midlands to join the campaign.
Now representatives have taken up the mantle in Warwick, Banbury, Coventry, Shirley, Solihull, Leamington Spa and Kenilworth.
And others from further afield have now begun collecting products in Northampton, Oxford, Daventry, Bath and areas in Gloucestershire.
