About This Project

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Did you know that two in five people who menstruate and one in four students experience period poverty in the United States? Did you even know there was a term for it? Period poverty: an inability to afford and access the care supplies necessary for sanitary, comfortable menstruation. Despite being a pervasive obstacle to national gender equality, period poverty is not often discussed, let alone addressed, in the U.S.

 

Because the issue is most severe in foreign countries, many of which require girls and women to abandon their regular lives entirely when Aunt Flo comes knocking, we tend not to see the full extent of the harm Americans suffer when they cannot afford to manage their cycles. I consulted with a representative from Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood and connected with a local organization, the MoonCatcher Project, to get a full picture of period poverty in the Albany area, the U.S. and beyond. What are the next steps in the fight against this problem? Read the story to find out.