When bare essentials such as food, water, and warmth prove difficult to obtain, pads and tampons seem like a low priority. However, homeless women suffer immensely due to a lack of proper feminine hygiene.  Period, a national organization introduced this year, raises money to help homeless women with menstrual health. They put together care packages with period products to take to women’s shelters and plan to partner with the Greater Detroit Coalition to bring bags on the holidays.

The national organization was founded by two high school students in 2014 upon realizing that many homeless women face infection as they try to substitute pads and tampons with unsanitary products like toilet paper and used paper bags. The club is also taking political action by launching the fight to repeal the tax on tampons that is enforced in thirty states.

Although our local chapter is just starting out, Troy High members have plans to foster change beyond the care packages. In addition to helping homeless women, they strive to make students familiar with feminist goals.

“The vision is to make sure periods aren’t such a taboo thing,” advisor Jennifer Opalewski said. “We don’t want it to become a situation where since people don’t want to talk about it; others don’t get what they need, and we’re trying to fix that.”

Certainly, some students aren’t comfortable with this new topic and are skeptical about the goal of the club.

“Giving anything to the homeless people–other than food and money—is pretty weird,” freshman Alex Prater said.  “There are some things when you’re homeless, you just have to accept you’re not going to get.”

However, others recognize the value of donating feminine products to the homeless and are eager to get involved.

“I think it’s a very important cause,” senior Richard Yang said. “In third world countries, there are a lot of women struggling with opression because it’s not socially acceptable to talk about it in public.”

As this club strives to break down stigmas, they have struggled to achieve status as an unofficial club.  Some ideas were brought up for them to join a pre-existing women’s rights club, She’s the First, which fundraises to provide sufficient education to women in third world countries, however, Period members are adamant about focusing on their mission.

“We want to keep it separate because we are two separate entities,” senior Elise Xia said.

Period, although not an unofficial club yet, is open to all students–male or female–who are interested in helping the less fortunate and giving aid to the feminist cause.