Initiative Awareness: Periods During The Pandemic: No Person Left Behind - Ending Period Poverty

Hello,

My name is Aanya Patel, a sophomore in high school who is a youth advocate and is passionate about enabling a change in her community and globally. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many public health disparities, ranging from healthcare unavailability to mass unemployment, but less frequently discussed, lack of access to Menstrual Hygiene Products in third world countries. Looking closer to home the statistics were equally shocking. In the U.S. 1 in 5 girls miss a class or school due to lack of access to period products. Even, more girls miss school in the low socioeconomic areas due to lack of access to menstrual hygiene products. I too belong to a high school where the majority of students come from similar backgrounds. This raises within me a sense of purpose to try to help those girls who may be negatively impacted and suffering in silence in our everyday community high schools. As a first-world country, where simple access to such an important product is overlooked, it raises the bigger concern of how we view gender equality in our country. It is paramount that we, as citizens support initiatives that promote access to feminine hygiene products and consequently to education for all of our today's youth. As a youth advocate, I wanted to make a change, so I took ACTION. I started a non-profit, Global Girls Initiative which provides girls a platform to help them educate, empower, and improve their communities through STEAM-based real-life projects. One of the real-life STEAM-based projects we initiated for science is "Periods During the Pandemic: No Girl Left Behind" to end period poverty. My goal is for every girl to have access to the basic necessity of menstrual hygiene products so she may have the quality of education she deserves not only in my state of FL but all over the country. Through my initiative, "Periods During the Pandemic: No Girl Left Behind" I am donating over 50,000 menstrual hygiene products (MHP) to ALL the Title One Middle and High School girls in Hillsborough County.

Help support Aanya by checking out her account, @global.gi on Instagram!