By Head Students Maddy McLure and Penny Meek
As the first ever all female Head Student team, we decided to embark on a slightly unusual charity adventure this year: the Homeless Period Project.
Fifty thousand women are living on the streets nationwide without access to sanitary items. Periods are the number one reason girls in developed countries miss school. The instance of depression is three times higher in homeless women than the national average.
These facts shocked us – not only do we consider female hygiene as vital as having access to clean water, food and shelter, but this is also an issue facing women in our area. Wherever there is a homeless population, there will be women struggling with little or no access to products to maintain their personal hygiene. This has both physical impacts (risk of infection, toxic shock syndrome and skin irritation to name but a few) and also major mental health implications – we believe every human being has the right to feel clean and dignified, no matter what their situation may be.
Our campaign to collect female sanitary items for homeless women has been kicked off to an amazing start with a donation from school of more than 800 sanitary products – wow!
Without a doubt, this is an issue that everyone (boys very much included) has to get involved in. Female sanitary items are not a luxury and should not be out of reach for any woman or girl and we need everyone’s help to make this a reality!
What’s more, we hope that by starting a conversation about menstruation, the stigma surrounding periods can finally be removed. Hello 2017!
Any female sanitary items are needed, welcomed and very much appreciated, as well as any small change. Equally vital to us is support and we are very thankful to the students in younger years who have volunteered to run the collections alongside us.
Please follow us at @HeadStudentsTGS to track our progress!
