From Period Poverty to Gender Equality
By contributor Katie Davey
For her birthday this year, Amber Bishop asked her friends and family to forego the usual gift-giving and instead, she asked them to help her end period poverty at Cambridge-Narrows Community School (C-NCS).
Period poverty refers to the lack of ability to afford sanitary products for menstruation. A study conducted by Plan International Canada found that one third of Canadian women under 25 struggle to afford period products.
“When I started digging into more data, I found that 1 in 7 girls has missed school because of period poverty, said Amber Bishop.
“Their parents can’t afford to provide the necessary products. I didn’t even think about kids not being able to come to school because they didn’t have tampons or pads.”
Amber is the Principal of the Cambridge-Narrows Community School which houses grades kindergarten though to grade 12. She prides herself as always creating welcoming spaces for her students — whether that was her classroom when she was teaching, or remodeling the cold, beige bathrooms at C-NCS.
“I’ve always tried to create safe, bright, warm, welcoming spaces. I’ve been working on beautifying our school. And I thought, where do the kids go when they’re struggling; when they need to recharge; when they’re feeling empty? Where do kids that are struggling to make friends go? Or the kids that are considering self-harm?
I find them in the bathroom.
“I want them to walk into a room that tells them that people care about them. So I thought how could we help kids? I asked some of our artistic teachers if they would paint the bathrooms and they agreed. Our bathrooms are now filled with positivity and happy little quotes.”
The bathroom beautification was made possible through the generosity of local artist, resident, and C-NCS supply teacher Erin Moss.
Making kids feel welcome at C-NCS depends on one key thing — that they actually are in school. One of the key factors of period poverty is students staying home.
This is the second year that the #PeriodProject has been operational at C-NCS. In 2018, the provincial department of health gave the school one condom dispenser. Amber made the judgement call to put it in the boys bathroom, but was soon met by opposition from a group senior girls in her school. They argued that only making condoms accessible to boys is not promoting equality — Amber agreed.
After investigating what a second dispenser would cost, Amber quickly realized that the $500 price tag was out of their reach. So she created a sanitation package in the senior girls bathroom which included condoms, menstruation products, and deodorant — all with the aim of promoting equality and reducing period poverty.
But the products have run out, and the school doesn’t have the financial resources to keep the program running. That’s why Amber started her birthday fundraising campaign.
Here at GlassSKY, we’ve been inspired by Amber’s commitment to ending period poverty and we want to help. We’re making a contribution to the school of $1000, made up of $500 financial donation for #PeriodProject, and an equal investment in a library pack for the school with copies of Confidence Code for Teen Girls and our SOAR book that profiles Canadian female icons and trailblazers who have overcome adversity. Inspired by Erin’s creations, we’re also producing fun stickers for the girls to put on their books or bag to give them daily reminders of the strength that lies within, and to link them to our online resources where they can download more copies of SOAR and think about their own potential.
We want to further amplify Amber’s leadership which is why we have also partnered with Femme Wonk to host a podcast promoting the #PeriodProject and to discuss some of the policy challenges needed to end period poverty.
How can you help? Host a period drive!
And employers, you can tap into your younger workforce to drive positive change. Millennials are driving corporate social responsibility (CSR) across multiple industries. They will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025, and they want to work for organizations whose values align with their own. You can engage your workforce while also contributing to ending period poverty or other important causes in your community. Contact us to learn more.