Group of young people take on fundraising walk to…

Group of young people take on fundraising walk to tackle period poverty in the North East

A group of young people took on a wacky fundraising walk to help raise awareness of period poverty in the North East.

The group, named the Menstrual Bakers, is working with the National Citizen Service (NCS) to help provide girls and women with period products who may not be able to afford them. One of the group's members, Corinne Monroe, said the group wanted to do something to help women.

And after hearing about how some young girls and women struggle to access essential period products like pads and tampons, Corrine and the group were determined to raise awareness. They also took on a sponsored walk and bake sale to help raise money for products that they then donated.

Corrine, 16, from South Shields, said: "There was a group of 14 of us and 12 of us were girls and we wanted to do something that would help women by raising awareness and money.

"We thought period poverty would be something we could really help raise awareness of. Period poverty was something I wasn't really aware of but the statistics are quite shocking when you look at how many girls don't go to school because they're not able to get period products.

"It's really shocking and I really wanted to raise awareness about the difficulties these women and girls are facing. There was a time when money was tight so I can relate to it in a sense by not being able to have everything you need but I've never not had access to period products. I'm very privileged in my life, these are essential things that I just have in my house, I never have to think about not having them."

The group, who are mainly from North Shields, did a sponsored walk on Thursday with members dressing up as wacky characters including Mario and Luigi, Cat in the Hat and Spiderman. They walked with donation buckets and signs from Whitley Bay Metro to the Royal Quays Marina, before finishing at Tynemouth Metro.

On Friday, the group also went to Linskill Park Care Home in North Shields to hold a bake sale for the residents there with all money raised going towards buying sanitary products. These were then donated to the Bay Food Bank and the Base in Whitley Bay, which is an LGTBIQA+ Youth Support Service, while any leftover money will be donated to period poverty charity Red Box.

Corrine said: "We wanted to make it quite eye-catching by dressing up and it was really, fun. The next day we went to a care home and did a bake sale. We chose to donate products to the Base to help the transgender community who could potentially feel uncomfortable buying sanitary products. Overall we raised £500 which is pretty amazing."

But as well as money, the group also wants to open up the discussion. Corrine said: "When we were collecting with our buckets and people would ask what it's for, we told them and you see their face just drop and they walk away. We want to encourage people to talk about it, it shouldn't be something you're embarrassed about or ashamed of, it's a normal body function and we should be talking openly about it."

If you would like to donate to the group's Go Fund Me page, you can do so here.

Read next:

Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.

Already a member? Sign in here