Empowering Youth: Student-Led Solutions to Period Poverty in Camden

Read Time:2 Minute, 48 Second

Story and photos by Prachi Shashidhar

What better way to highlight the importance of “Women’s History Month” than by highlighting the dedicated work of a group of driven students who have been working on the Period Poverty Project for over a year. The team of five, Cindy Do, Christine Do, Anisha Snell, Yaren Aykit, and Shaan Mody are a group of dedicated sophomores and juniors who have witnessed and understood the hardships that women and young girls endure, monthly, specifically in the city of Camden. As great changemakers, they came up with a solution to this pressing problem through designing a novel project, born in the First Year Forum Class of Spring 2023 instructed by Dr. Westman at the Honors College.

Cindy Do, Founder of the project, says through the class and learning what a “just community was”, she hoped to”learn more about menstruation, inequity, and explore this in our campus and community as a whole” in the class alongside other students interested in shining light on the stigmatized and underspoken topic of menstruation, and as a result the project was born.

The Period Poverty Project housed in Caring for Camden (a student organization on campus) currently has two facets- education and awareness, and donation. Anisha Snell, President of Caring for Camden and one of the leaders of the Period Poverty Project, says that through this project, “we hope to tackle this issue through multiple facets of making tangible donations to a local highschool, Leap Academy, and through hosting events on campus to de-stigmatize the topic and increase awareness”.

The passionate team has been doing so and more, as many members of the Rutgers–Camden community have seen the eye-catching boxes that creatively capture the attention of many passers by -many of whom stop by and take a long look at their intricately designed drop off donation boxes in the Campus Centre and Honors College and are moved to donate. Christine Do, another leader of the Period Poverty Project, mentioned how the boxes were “designed to reduce stigma and bring awareness”, but one might also say that it is a playful approach to education.

Yaren Aykit, another leader of the Period Poverty Project, stressed on the importance of “menstrual education and awareness.” Yaren, who is currently focusing her efforts on education through working on a research paper, alongside other members set to be published soon, believes that through education many of the problems surrounding inequity and access to period products can be assisted to a great extent.

Shaan Mody, another leader of the Period Poverty Project, is also focusing his efforts on his desire to promote “social justice and health equity”, through the research paper that he hopes will create a magnified impact. Eventually, he hopes to collaborate with policy makers, at legislative levels to ultimately “ create a more inclusive and supportive campus environment for all individuals.”
As Women’s History Month comes to an end, as cliche as this sounds, it is not the only month where women should be recognized for their achievements, but every day of every month should highlight women. The Period Poverty Project is one important organization that aims to support young girls and women in our community–to uplift, educate, and support more individuals on menstruation, and the importance of the matter.