I grew up in South Chingford, East London, with my sister and four brothers. We were a low-income family and my mum worked three jobs to support us. When you are struggling to put food on the table, periods just don’t crop up in conversation.
When I first started mine, I was lucky enough to have my older sister and cousins to talk to but we didn’t speak to our parents about it; it was almost an unwritten rule.
I knew that asking for pads would put my mum in an even more difficult position, so I went without and often improvised with things like tissue paper. Going to school in this situation proved unpleasant pretty quickly, so I would wait until Mum had gone to work so she wouldn’t know I was skipping school because of it.
It was the worry that stopped me from going to lessons – worry about not having enough products to see me through the day, or even any at all, and anxiety about leaking.
I felt frequently embarrassed and ashamed and, throughout my teens and young adult life, my self-esteem really took a hit. Growing up with less things and fewer experiences than other families, including period products, made me feel different to other girls.
My experience has motivated me to help young people facing similar struggles to those I did. I understand the value of education because period poverty meant I missed out on some of my own.
Now, working as a family support worker in a Hackney school, I support a diverse range of people with all sorts of issues, including struggles attached to periods and adolescence. That might be an inability to buy products, worries about changes with their body, or just the stress of forgetting to bring pads to school and starting their period unexpectedly.
The girls in my school normally feel excited about ‘starting’ but also scared and uncomfortable talking about it; some are too embarrassed to even ask their parents for products, especially if they come from backgrounds where periods are still taboo. For example, for many of the girls from Asian families, conversations about periods or sex just aren’t commonplace at home.
Only once we started offering period products at school did we open up the dialogue and realise just how substantial some of these problems are.
So many misconceptions about periods are still out there and providing free products created a safe space where these issues could be tackled head-on.
People didn’t acknowledge the long-term effects that missing school because of your period would have on both your education and your self-esteem.
It also isn’t just the pupils on free school dinners that need this – there are kids that have holidays and big cars but simply don’t have a close bond with a parent enabling them to talk about it. One girl started her period at school and came to me for products, but didn’t know how to use pads or even what they did. With our support, she’s begun to really understand her body.
The Red Box Project, a charitable scheme that was supporting my school before the government funding, was already providing free period products for any student who needed them when I joined the school.
Not everyone knew about it, however. At first, there would only be one girl quietly using the supplies, and the students never mentioned periods at all – the girls would get the giggles and stop talking.
Making sure they felt comfortable asking for products was a difficult task. I ran period workshops for both parents and children and we started doing assemblies that covered the basics (the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ around periods) but also giving advice on how to take care of yourself, how hormones will make you feel, and personal anecdotes about having chocolate and ‘duvet days’. It’s about normalising and humanising the conversation.
Now, I genuinely believe the whole school feels comfortable talking about it. Girls can come and get products at any time from the box at my desk, and we also offer packs that they can take home if they need.
As a result, attendance in lessons is up and girls talk positively and confidently about periods and changes they’re experiencing as they enter their teens.
Looking back, having this access to products would have had a huge impact on me at school. Back then, people didn’t acknowledge the long-term effects that missing school because of your period would have on both your education and your self-esteem. I will never get that back, but am determined to make sure our girls have a different experience.
I’m thrilled that all schools can now access free products thanks to the funding. However, the scheme will only tackle period poverty if schools actually use it: the money is there, so take advantage.
I’m calling for all schools to sign up but I’m also calling for conversations. You can’t assume that you know how many, or which, girls need support.
Keeping lines of communication open means that we can combat period poverty at its core, as well as improve attendance to lessons, boost mental health and increase self-esteem amongst our girls. We have the chance to tackle all of these issues, schools just need to use it.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/02/period-poverty-made-skip-school-wont-let-girls-suffer-12167519/
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