Period Poverty and Dignity Scheme 

Our scheme is part of a wider initiative, created by the Higher Education Council for Wales (HEFCW), which recognises the importance of ensuring period dignity for the well-being and health of students. This includes mental health and the student experience. We want to achieve period dignity for all those who menstruate at Bangor University and ensure students’ academic and general university experience isn’t compromised by a lack of access to products or support around menstruation.

What does period dignity mean? 

Binti International (2020), defines period dignity as ensuring all students who menstruate have access to education about menstruation, to the products they need to manage their periods and freedom from the stigma and taboos associated with menstruation.

What does period poverty mean? 

In a nutshell, period poverty refers to a lack of access to period products due to financial constraints. This can be caused by a wide range of life events that negatively impact on a person's ability to access period products to manage a most intimate and regular occurrence in their life. More broadly speaking, it can also be defined as a lack of access to toilets, hand washing facilities, hygienic waste management and education on menstruation. 

To learn more about period poverty, what it is and how we can help, have a read of the following guide created by organic period pad brand Yoppie: 

https://yoppie.com/period-poverty

The aims of this scheme

Period products are a necessity not a luxury. That’s why the main aim of this scheme is to provide students with free access to period products. 

Secondary to this, we have 3 mission objectives that we hope to achieve through our social media campaign and events. We want to INSPIRE, EDUCATE AND EMPOWER students on all thing’s menstruation as part of our journey to achieving period dignity for all those who menstruate at Bangor University.

What do these mission objectives mean and how will we achieve them?

INSPIRE. We want to inspire students to adopt more planet-friendly period practices through our Environmental Campaign. This includes encouraging students to give reusables a go or order from our 100% plastic free range of single-use products, available through our home delivery supplier Hey Girls.

EDUCATE. We want to educate students on period poverty, menstruation, the health conditions related to or affecting people’s menstrual experiences, how to use reusable products and how to correctly dispose of single-use products. In doing so, we hope to reach not only all students who menstruate but all those who don’t too. We believe this will help reduce the stigma associated with conversations around menstruation and period poverty.

EMPOWER. We want to empower students through opening-up the dialogue and normalising conversation around menstruation. Every Monday, we’ll be sharing student’s menstruation experiences on Undeb Bangor’s Instagram as part of our Menstruation Monday Quote series. We hope that this, together with the education provided, will empower all those who menstruate and allow students to celebrate their differences in menstrual experiences.

Head over to Undeb Bangor’s Instagram and Facebook page to check out our social media campaign. Head over to the Events page to get involved.

 

What’s important to the scheme?