Period Poverty. Definitely not the alliterate statement I thought would be opening my first blog post at Hart Recruitment, however it does very much exist. Poverty itself is already stigmatised nationwide, so once combined with the ever so frightening idea female menstruation, a large number of people tend to turn a blind eye. We are supporting The Red Box Project in order to change this idea. As I may lose the interest of some people due to addressing a natural bodily process I would like to ask you to take a second, take a deep breath, open your mind and continue reading to help us make a difference in thousands of local, young lives.
Plan International UK conducted some research into period poverty and found that one in ten girls have been unable to afford sanitary wear at some point in their lives. This is followed by a shocking 71% of girls who admitted that they are embarrassed to purchase sanitary products. Although this research is based on a sample of 1,000 girls and young women aged 14-21, I believe that this is a fair representation of the wider population. It is statistics like these which have motivated women all over the world to create charitable organisations in order to abolish period poverty.
Here at Hart Recruitment, we have chosen to support The Red Box Project. After looking at a handful of other charities we decided on Red Box due to their hands-on approach to helping young women in our surrounding areas. We then shortly realised that they are doing all of these amazing activities nationwide. Even if you’re a bit behind on your local period poverty charity knowledge, I’m sure you can guess The Red Box Project’s marketing strategy. You guessed it. Red boxes. Not just any red boxes may I add, red boxes filled to the brim with any girls go-to period survival kit. All kinds of sanitary products and a few fresh pairs of knickers are donated by the public, put in these red boxes and distributed to local schools. The Red Box Project is a community-based, not-for-profit initiative that was founded in Portsmouth in early 2017 by three friends who wanted to give young people in their local area access to sanitary products after reading about ‘Period Poverty‘ in the news. But I’ll let you read all about that on their website.
When I was told about The Red Box Project initially, it took over a good chunk of my life for the weeks that followed. Articles upon articles were appearing all over my social media platforms. One in particular from Birmingham Live was shared to my Facebook timeline which outlines the views of a group of campaigners in Solihull who highlight that ‘Period poverty is jeopardising girls’ health’. The article then goes on to explain the embarrassing and degrading ways in which young girls in schools are having to deal with their periods without the usual means to do so. Which then results in female students missing out on vital hours of education due to a natural function of their bodies which they must pay to deal with. The replacements in which schoolgirls are using to replace sanitary products are extremely harmful to their health, as the headline states, so this is where Red Box comes in.
Our aim as a whole, in collaboration with The Red Box Project, is to reduce the 49% of girls who have missed school as a result of their periods. Now don’t think that we have just set up a GoFundMe to sit back and wait for the donations to start flowing in. We are going all out this year. On the 18th of May 2019, the team here at Hart are all taking part in Tough Mudder. Tough Mudder is a 5K mud run at Belvoir Castle in Grantham. There are 13 obstacles that we must overcome in this (maybe not so) fun-run, all of which include being almost fully submerged in gallons of wet mud. However, assisting The Red Box Project in their mission to abolish period poverty is worth feeling gross for an hour or two before the optional ‘hose down’ at the end of the run.
To put the icing on the Red Box cake, we have decided that from the month of April, that our monthly Interviewer Techniques Workshop will no longer require a £75 delegate fee, but instead a donation to our Red Box Project GoFundMe page. The money we raise will be used to buy sanitary products and underwear for our red boxes which we will donate to The Red Box Project in order to be then donated to local schools.
So then, what are you waiting for? Those red boxes aren’t going to fill themselves.
Here’s the link to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/manage/hart-recruitment-supporting-the-red-box-project
Abi Johnson – Recruitment Coordinator at Hart Recruitment
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