Funding for Period Poverty Project

Action Homeless receive funding for Period Poverty Project

Action Homeless are delighted to announce that they have been awarded a grant of £450 by Charity Link to run a project that will target period poverty among people affected by homelessness.

Over the course of the next year, the project will engage with people who have periods to share the benefits of using a menstrual cup. The funding received allows for anyone interested to be provided with a cup, alongside information on how to safely use it. Aside from saving money for people who have periods, Action Homeless hopes that the project will have health benefits for those involved and promote sustainable solutions to sanitary health.

Action Homeless have approached Hey Girls, an organisation focused on tackling period poverty, to source menstrual cups.

When asked why she was inspired to start the project, coordinator Megan Wright said:

Period care and reproductive health are big interests of mine. When you consider all the social, economic and political issues that they’re tangled up with, it’s clear we don’t talk about them enough. Add in the ecological problem of sanitary waste, and all the plastic it puts into the environment, and it starts to feel quite urgent. With all this in mind, I decided we ought to make menstrual cups more accessible to our clients.

Menstrual cups have financial, ecological and health benefits, but can be expensive at first. Giving cups to our clients should save them money and give them more control over their periods. I’m hoping we can also start a wider discussion about reproductive health, as cups require their users to engage more fully with their anatomy. This would be great for staff to experience, as well as clients!