Period product drive collects enough products for 233 periods

Queen’s Period and Queen’s Health Outreach collaborated to support northern communities

Image by: Jodie Grieve
The drive collected a total of 1

Queen’s Period and Queen’s Health Outreach (QHO) ran a period product collection drive from March 1-7 in the ARC. With an earlier monetary donation from Queen’s Female Leadership in Politics (QFLIP), the drive collected a total of 1,092 tampons and 1,370 pads, enough to support 233 periods. 

Queen’s Period is a student group on campus that “works towards menstrual equity,” according to Renee Davies, co-chair of Queen’s Period. 

“We believe in menstrual education, advocacy, and we also work towards fundraising surrounding menstruation. A big part of our organization is working with Kingston community, as well as the Queens community to combat all those things,” Davies said in an interview with The Journal.

QHO is a non-profit United Way affiliated charity focused on tailoring lesson plans and community programming to adhere to the specific needs of local communities. 

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“By partnering with local schools and community organizations [we] work with our partners to ensure that all material and outreach activities are culturally relevant. We have four different initiatives: Kingston; Northern, which is who we have partnered with for the period drive; as well as initiatives in Belize and Guyana,” Julia Marshall, partnership coordinator of QHO, told The Journal.

The two groups came together to run this period drive based on shared interest and goals. 

“[T]hey had been looking for formal partnerships, and we thought that this would be a really amazing partnership to create and initiative to do,” Marshall said. 

The collected products will be mailed to Fort Providence in the North West Territories. The partners at the youth centre in Fort Providence will be giving the products to girls aged 11 to 16.          

Period products cost almost double in the North than in Southern Ontario due to the shipping cost of transporting them by plane, Davies said.

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This has been Queen’s Period’s most successful period product drive yet, according to Davies. 

“We know that there is a stigma around periods, and it is not widely discussed, and [northern communities] don’t have a lot of access to period products,” she said. 

“With all the products that will be sent, Queen’s Period also created an infographic to go in the packages, which is facts about periods that [girls] don’t necessarily learn about in school,” Marshall said. 

“We are really excited about the initiative, normally Queen’s Period only donates within the Kingston community and we are really proud we are able to help a marginalized community in our country,” Davies said. 

Tags

period products, queen's health outreach, queen's period

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