Students Collect More than 25,000 Sanitary Pads to Fight Period Poverty

An initiative put solidarity into practice at Colégio Adventista Afonso Pena, in São José dos Pinhais, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba. During the month of March, in observance of International Women's Day and in addition to studying about female personalities that have marked history, the students engaged in a competition that collected more than 25,000 tampons. The campaign carried out by the students aimed to combat period poverty and alert the community about the social problem.

For Raphael Rigoti, coordinator of the POP Center, a representative of one of the entities benefitted from the donations, which serve homeless women in the municipality. The school's engagement demonstrates an important step in raising society's awareness of the subject. “People living on the streets have difficulties in accessing many basic things, such as personal hygiene, for example. Women especially suffer more from it,” Rigoti explains.

According to Nara Falcão, director of the teaching unit, in addition to social awareness, the competition offered as a prize a night at school for the group that collected the most donations—the famous “pajama night.” "[It] was amazing. We didn't expect something this big. We launched the challenge for the students to collect the materials, and the mothers got excited and embraced the cause with their children,” exclaims Falcão.

Juliana Bereza was one of the mothers who embraced the cause. “We had the idea of ​​making a piggy bank, and some mothers suggested raising it with family, friends, neighbors, and shopkeepers. We even did research to get to know this reality more deeply,” she details. 

Her daughter, Ana Luiza, a sixth grader, was thrilled with the result. “It's really cool to win the competition prize, but even cooler is being able to help those in need,” she exclaims.

The mobilization of students and the school community gained attention from RPC, an affiliate of Rede Globo in Paraná. The donations will be sent to institutions such as the POP Center, in São José dos Pinhais, and the NGO Aquecendo Corações, in Curitiba, which serve homeless women.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s news site