Red Box Project launches across West Berkshire

Campaign aims to break taboos about menstruation and provide girls with sanitary products

A CAMPAIGN to break the stigma surrounding menstruation and empower young girls with greater access to sanitary products in school has been launched in West Berkshire.

The Red Box Project aims to support young girls in schools during their periods by providing ‘red boxes’ – containers filled with free sanitary products.

Founded in 2017, the national initiative aims to address ‘period poverty’ – when women cannot access sanitary products due to financial constraints.

The scheme is now being championed by a Hermitage resident determined to increase awareness around periods and ensure that menstruation isn’t used by young girls as an excuse to miss out on education.

Hollie Gavin said her own tendency to skip school when she was on her period inspired her to become involved with the project with the help of Jo Thomas from Newbury Academy Trust.

The former Theale Green pupil is aiming to put a red box in every school across the district over the next year as part of a growing momentum to end period poverty, as well as tackling the social and cultural restraints imposed upon girls during menstruation.

She received support from a Reading-based business whose employees donated a huge number of period-friendly items last December, along with pupils from Bradfield College, who have thrown their weight behind the scheme.

Theale Green was the first in the district to receive a red box, while six others have since benefitted from the scheme, including Calcot Junior School, which received one last Wednesday.

Free sanitary products will be provided in secondary schools in England from September.

However, it is the unexpected uptake from primary schools which has lead Mrs Gavin to focus on helping schoolchildren.

“I’m seeing such a demand from primary schools in the district,” said Mrs Gavin, who added that while most girls start their periods at the age of 12, some can begin menstruating as young as eight.

“It’s quite common for girls to have their very first period in a primary school environment – the girls panic and they don’t know what to do.

“Teachers are funding sanitary protection for them – when it feels like girls are asking for a favour.

“It shouldn’t be like that.”

While West Berkshire may be considered a more prosperous part of the country, schoolgirls in the district are not immune to social and cultural constraints faced during menstruation, Mrs Gavin said.

One former West Berkshire school pupil hid her periods from her family for three years after she started menstruating aged 11, out of fear that her friends would know.

As someone from a traditional Muslim community, in which women were required to wear headscarves once they had started their periods, she used dinner money to buy sanitary towels to prevent people from finding out.

She said: “On occasions where I didn’t have anything to use, I would use scrunched up toilet roll, which would often lead to leaks.

“When this happened, I would say I was unwell and in secondary school would usually go home.

“Had a box like the one this scheme provides been available in my school, I’m confident periods would have been talked about more openly.

“I would have probably spoken to teachers about it and realise I didn’t need to be scared.”

According to Mrs Gavin, that girl’s experience transcends the financial paradigms so often associated with period poverty.

She said: “People will read this and think ‘Oh, sanitary towels are like £2 a packet, what are you talking about?’.

“Her story is another example that this isn’t just financial – it’s cultural, personal and religious, too.

“West Berkshire is an affluent area of the country, but the proportion of family income is significantly going on rent or mortgage repayments.

“Girls have contacted me to tell me they aren’t being provided with the products due to finances being spent on other things.”

As the scheme grows, Mrs Gavin will be tasked with replenishing stock in boxes already in schools, such as St Bartholomew’s and Trinity, where the project has been entirely pupil-driven.

But to achieve this, more donation points are needed in local communities – like Thatcham Library – where sanitary products are collected in the same way that unwanted food is donated in supermarkets.

Sanitary pads are a priority – which are often more suitable for younger girls to use – while tights, pairs of new knickers in a range of sizes and tampons are also welcome.

Money can be also donated to help buy the items or even the boxes themselves, which Mrs Gavin has so far self-funded.

She said: “Girls should have products available in the same way you would expect toilet paper to be provided in bathrooms at school.

“These aren’t luxuries, but essentials that girls should be able to obtain, for whatever reason.”

To donate money to The Red Box Project West Berkshire, visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/redboxwestberks