The ARHS Girl Up Club partnered with student-led outreach group Community ACTS, Northborough Junior Woman’s Club and Fihri Inc. to raise over $2,500 towards menstruation products for public buildings in town at the Northborough Period Palooza at Trinity Church on Jan. 31.

Volunteers of all ages gathered to assemble 279 period kits, each containing tampons, pads and liners from an eco-friendly collection curated by Fihri, to be distributed to Northborough public schools, the public library and the Northborough Food Pantry. The event was organized by Fihri founder Ceylan Rowe, whose start-up is dedicated to promoting period equality in Massachusetts and beyond as well as offering sustainable alternatives to classic paper products. 

“I wanted [my daughter] to have period products that were healthy and sustainable,” Rowe said. “But I didn’t want it just for her; I wanted it for her and her peers, so that’s why I launched Fihri.”

Rowe, who served as a keynote speaker at the 2017 World Woman Summit and the 2016 MA Conference for Women, believes that all menstruators deserve access to free products, regardless of location or socioeconomic status.

“People often think that period poverty happens overseas, and it does, but the unfortunate reality is one out of five students in the U.S. experience period poverty,” Rowe said. “That’s one out of five of your classmates, and that’s unacceptable to me.”

Wellness Coordinator of the Northborough-Southborough School District Mary Ellen Duggan agrees there is room for improvement when it comes to students’ access to menstrual products in the district.

“Everything starts in your community,” Duggan said.  “We have to start small to make a big change,.We don’t always think that there’s period poverty [in places like Northborough and Southborough], but there is. We have people that need help, and in a community like this it’s not as easy to ask for it.”

Duggan points out that period products are necessities and should be accounted for in the district health budget, which covers medical supplies like thermometers and ice packs.

“What are period products? They’re something that the majority of women need in their lifetime,” Duggan said. “[We look at it] like toilet paper, and it should be available in every bathroom that you walk in.”

Period products have been available in each of the three all-gender bathrooms at Algonquin since last November as a result of work done by the Student Council.

Currently in the U.S., there is no federal legislation mandating the provision of free period products in schools or public buildings. The I AM Bill, which would require their availability in prisons, homeless shelters and public schools, was passed unanimously by the Massachusetts Senate in March 2022 but has yet to be brought to a vote in the House of Representatives.

MA State Senator Robyn Kennedy, who attended the Northborough Period Palooza, values the action taken on a local level while large-scale change is awaited.

“To me, these events are important to address the immediate need, but also raise awareness and [advocate for] addressing it systemically,” Kennedy said.

Also in attendance, MA State Representative Meghan Kilcoyne recounted the general experience of menstruators in today’s society, as well as costliness and lack of accommodations for those in need. 

“Anybody who has had a period knows that it is something that is a constant in your life…and they’re not cheap,” Kilcoyne said. “There’s very few places where you can access [menstrual products] free of charge, and if you don’t have them, it really can be debilitating.”

The attendees of the Period Palooza agree that in order to fully address the ongoing issue of period poverty, the subject should be more openly discussed and not considered taboo or private.

“It’s really important to raise awareness and lessen the stigma of talking about [periods],” Kilcoyne said. “People get very uncomfortable when talking about it, but it’s a real part of people’s healthcare and lived experience.”

Fihri team member and Community ACTS leader Sherry Clark has noticed positive change in regards to openness and inclusion of all genders in the matter of menstruation.

“I think kids in college and kids in high school are really responsible for changing that conversation,” Clark said. “There’s a lot of discussion around what a menstruator is, and I think that conversation has opened up to human issues; it’s just something that everybody should talk about.”

Millions of people across the nation continue to be affected by the lack of legislation and frequent avoidance of the topic of free period products. According to Clark, this overall ignorance towards the issue often carries into their personal, academic and professional lives.

“As a mom and a woman, I feel that nobody in town should be prevented from going to school, going to work, going to sports simply because they don’t have period products,” Clark said.

To help Fihri fight period poverty in our community, you can make a donation here.