How the Women’s Centre is Combating Period Poverty on Campus

The Women’s Centre is combatting period poverty with their ongoing initiative of providing free menstrual products to students in the SLC! The WC has received $7,200 for the Spring term from the WUSA Equity, Opportunity, and Innovation (EOI) Fund so they can provide the free menstrual products. 

We talked to the WC coordinators, Zoya Randhawa (she/her) and Nikita Srivastava (she/her), and the WC advocacy directors, Stephanie Hand (she/her) and Samantha Beneteau (she/her) so they can share details of the Women’s Centre’s initiative and the importance of period equity.   

WC chose to spend the WUSA EOI funding this way because “Menstrual products are a necessity for many students at this school, but we have found that they’re not easily accessible, nor are they always affordable for everyone,” said the Women’s Centre.

“By providing menstrual products for free, students feel a sense of security in knowing that they can take care of themselves while on their period.” Students won’t “have to stress about securing or affording menstrual products, on top of everything else they must deal with as a student.”

The Women’s Centre has been working on this initiative since the Spring of 2022 to help alleviate the stressors that come with issues like “period poverty and general struggles in accessing menstrual products are extremely prevalent.”  

The Women’s Centre also stated that their ultimate goal would be to tackle period poverty on a more permanent level with public education, consistent menstrual product resources on and off campus, etc. This is why they’re using this initiative as an opportunity to also educate and raise awareness of “how costly and inaccessible menstrual products can be. By spreading more awareness on these issues, we hope to be able to work towards a larger solution that can benefit students permanently.” 

The Women’s Centre, the WUSA student-run service, aims to provide a female-positive and supportive environment on campus for all women and trans folks. In addition to menstrual products, they also provide students with sexual health resources such as condoms, pads and pregnancy tests.  

The Equity, Opportunity, and Innovation (EOI) Fund is a WUSA fund that exists to assist with events, programs, and initiatives that bring awareness and to the systemic issues that marginalized groups on campus experience, facilitate attendance at conferences or other development opportunities, and to assist with costs of unique one-time projects that benefit students at-large.  

Click here to apply for the EOI Fund or learn about other funding WUSA offers. 

Click here or contact the Women’s Centre if you want to learn more about their menstrual product initiative.