College friends on a mission to end period poverty

Brut America

"We’ve all experienced those days where you need a pad or a tampon."  These college friends are on a mission to end period poverty. They started a movement to distribute hundreds of menstrual hygiene products to COVID-hit shelters...

Transcript

00:00This is our sign to host a drive for period products.

00:17To people that do menstruate, it's very easy to understand how great of an inconvenience

00:23it can be and how easily it can hold people back because I think we've all sort of experienced

00:27like those days where you are empty handed and you need a pad or a tampon.

00:48The two of us had a lot of time on our hands with school sort of being done and we wanted

00:53to be able to utilize the time and the resources we had in order to be able to help with all

00:58of the issues that were sort of coming to light at the height of the pandemic.

01:02It was very clear that like low income communities and homeless people were really getting hit

01:06hard.

01:07We were going through the lists of like needs that shelters had and we kept seeing you know

01:11bras, we kept seeing menstrual care, if they don't have access to basic hygiene care that

01:15probably includes period products and period products are like one of the most expensive

01:21items under that umbrella of hygiene care.

01:23So obviously it's going to be an unaddressed need.

01:40Her drive is the perfect blend of both of our interests.

01:43I know even from like a public health with Alexa's interest in law, it's kind of the

01:50perfect mix for a nonprofit in general.

01:52We hosted our first drive in the Chicagoland area in July.

01:56And then in September, once we realized that this drive was something that could sort of

02:02be like, turn into a model for other people our age or not our age to like be able to

02:08take and run with that's when we launched our host your own drive program.

02:11And since then, I think we've hosted like almost 400 drives like nationwide, we encourage

02:17them to donate directly back to their communities.

02:19We feel like it only makes sense that if they're going to, you know, collect items

02:24from their area to be able to help their area as well.

02:26But with that being said, when people reach out to us through social media, or through

02:31Tick Tock through Instagram, things like that.

02:35We do have a central location that we accept items to and those items are used to build

02:40kits right now for Chicago public schools.

03:02I think the biggest obstacle was just getting started just reaching out to people, making

03:07sure to do everything by the book legally and all of that.

03:10But really just getting started was the biggest, most important thing.

03:13And it's obviously very obvious, but it's, it's still the hardest thing about starting

03:20something as huge as this has become.

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