Article by Yorkshire Post about our partner charity Freedom4Girls with a mention for Help in Handbags
25/2/19 – Volunteers in Yorkshire are supporting some of the thousands of women and girls across the UK who are living in period poverty. Laura Drysdale reports.
Tina Leslie, who runs Freedom4Girls in Leeds.
Launched by junior doctors Hannah Barham-Brown and Lucy Brooks in November, and supported by colleagues in the British Medical Association Yorkshire and the local branch of the Women’s Equality Party, it provides handbags filled with toiletries and a month’s worth of menstrual products. “If you are already struggling to feed your family and relying on food banks, then sanitary products come down the bottom of the list of priorities,” Dr Barham-Brown says. “As a GP, I know period poverty is something that affects a lot of people who menstruate in our area. It’s a very real problem.” The project has handed out more than 90 bags and volunteers hope it can expand so that products are available in local GP surgeries. “The knock on wider economic effects of period poverty is it is taking women and girls out of work and school. It makes sense to provide these things.”
Other Period Poverty News:
8/3/19 – Scheme to make free sanitary products available in schools is expected to echo one already in place in Scotland, The plan follows the NHS pledge to make tampons and sanitary towels available to patients.
5/3/19 – The UK government has announced £2m to support organisations around the world to end period poverty by 2030.
The minister for women and equalities, Penny Mordaunt, also announced £250,000 for the creation of a taskforce comprised of government departments, businesses, charities and manufacturers to come up with new ideas to tackle the problem in the UK.
3/3/19 – All NHS hospitals in England will be required to offer free tampons or sanitary products to any patient who needs them from this summer, health leaders have said.
17/1/19 – Yorkshire Post article detailing that Councillors from across the political divide in Leeds have said work needs to continue to tackle period poverty in Leeds. The meeting heard how the council is currently working with schools across Leeds on a strategy to help make sanitary products more readily available to girls whose families struggle to make ends meet.
29/8/18 – Brighton have become the first Premier League club to commit to providing female fans with free sanitary products after a campaign was launched by three women who are supporters of Celtic. The Guardian understands that both Liverpool and Everton are also discussing whether they are in a position to offer free feminine hygiene products in the women’s toilets at their stadiums.
24/8/19 – Students at schools, colleges and universities across Scotland will have access to free sanitary products as part of a £5.2m scheme to fight period poverty.
17/8/18 – A Scottish council will provide free sanitary products in all public buildings in a scheme aimed at breaking the taboo about period poverty.
Help In Handbags 