– Ashley Eubanks, Founder of The Beauty Initiative Inc./ Help Her, period
Our Founder, Ashley L. Eubanks an Educator expresses her true passion and plea to ensure all women, especially girls in schools have access to menstrual supplies.
If a female student misses school every time she has her period, she is set 145 days behind her fellow male students. Every month a female will have a menstrual cycle, every month. Is it far that a student who may not have the means to purchase sanitary pads, or forget or surprisingly her period starts must miss school? All due to the school not having adequate supplies. Ensuring each school in the state of Florida has menstrual necessities accessible to their female population is vital.
According to Always.com and the Always Confidence & Puberty Survey 143,000 girls in New York City alone have missed school because their family couldn’t afford period protection. The number is 88,000 girls in Los Angeles; 65,000 girls in Chicago; 57,000 girls in Atlanta; and 38,000 girls in Houston.
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“Menstruation is stigmatized around the world. Poor menstrual hygiene can cause physical health risks and has been linked to reproductive and urinary tract infections, according to UNICEF. It also stops women from reaching their full potential when they miss out on opportunities crucial to their growth.”
“Meeting the hygiene needs of all adolescent girls is a fundamental issue of human rights, dignity, and public health.” Sanjay Wijesekera, former UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
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“One in five girls have either left school early or missed school entirely because they did not have access to menstrual products,” says Senator Book, citing a recent survey. “Girls pay a price when these products aren’t free – and providing them will go a long way toward equity in education.” Senator Lauren Book
read more“Providing menstrual hygiene products in public school restrooms is long overdue,” Grieco said on Monday. “Research from the World Bank demonstrates that girls’ inability to manage their menstrual hygiene in school results in absenteeism, which in turn has severe economic costs on their lives. Stigma and a lack of access to feminine hygiene products negatively impacts teen girls who miss valuable class time—sometimes days—because the items they need are not readily available. Being an adolescent middle or high-schooler is hard enough without the fear and embarrassment of lacking proper care products during the school day because you cannot afford them. By providing free menstrual products in school bathrooms, we are removing barriers for some of our most vulnerable girls, helping them feel more confident and ensuring they spend more time in school.”
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