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This year at the Oscars,in the category of best short film one nomination stuck out from the rest it was a little film called “ Period. End of Sentence.” directed and produced by Reyka Zehtabchi alongside a team of multiple other game-changing ladies.
This film, made possible by the efforts of the members of the period project, chronicled the experiences of women and girls in India who were dealing with the stigma surrounding menstruation.
The film showed women young and old who didn’t understand what periods were much less how to manage them. These women without access to sanitary products like pads, tampons and liners were forced to find alternatives like cloth which did little to withstand a regular flow much less keep up to sanitary requirements.
I’d love to tell you that this is a unique circumstance, that the percentage of women without access to what feels like a basic human necessity is fairly low but that’s not the case.
This issue of period poverty is global and can affect those in even the most developed places in the world. One such example is that in the UK one in ten girls is unable to afford period products and one third of the population has experienced period poverty in recent years.
But what about here in the Caribbean?
Last week I got the chance to sit and chat with Samantha Duncan, one of four amazing women behind the Helping Her foundation, a non-profit organization that provides sanitary products for women and girls in need across Trinidad.
We chatted about the harsh reality of period poverty and even about our own experiences navigating that time of the month.
Carifem: So what would you define period poverty as?
SD: Period poverty is not just one thing, it can be defined as both zero access to menstrual products , meaning no access at all, and it can be defined as limited access to menstrual products meaning that pads may not be available on a monthly basis but whenever that person can afford it.
Carifem: I wanted to get an idea of what the reality of period poverty is right here in Trinidad and Tobago and who is most affected by it?
SD: I can’t really give you any definitive statistics about the current reality of period poverty right now in Trinidad and Tobago and I don’t see me gaining those statistics anytime in the
near future because of the stigma surrounding periods and menstruation.
Carifem: I feel like I should’ve started with this but can you tell me a bit of the story behind how and why you decided to start helping hertt?
SD: I started the organization in 2015 on my own.
It was July 2015, I had just finished my last year in UWI and I was on vacation. I was working but it was an at-home job so I had flexi-hours. On this day my mom was at work ,my elder sister hadn’t come home from her studies abroad and my younger sister was in school. So, my options were limited.
I woke profusely bleeding which for me, wasn’t the norm for on my period.
I thought to myself ‘ok I got my period let me grab a pad from the drawer,’ which was this communal draw in my mom’s room that all the girls would take pads from.
I opened the draw and it was empty! I was just like ‘holy crap what do i do? Do i call a neighbour ?’ then I’m thinking ‘my neighbours are older probably going through menopause they won’t have pads .’
Everybody else is I know is in school or work.
I even called one of my friends who was working close-by but she couldn’t leave at the time because she was with a client.
So, i went to the bathroom and I wadded up some toilet paper and i tucked it in. It was between that and showers, so once that was saturated I jumped into the shower and afterwards i added more toilet paper. I did this over and over until my mom saw my message and brought pads home that evening. But for that whole day it was so annoying.
I was so pissed off because this was my vacation, I’d just finished school and I wanted to go out but I couldn’t do anything because the flow was so heavy, I couldn’t even go to super pharm.
So then I got to thinking, ‘how do people function? Do people just not have pads like on a regular basis, and if they do what do they do because I couldn’t function just to do little things .'
That’s when I started researching and calling places for information because i was hyperventilating because of the fact that this was a real thing and people miss school and work because of it.
Carifem: How do we promote awareness of and how can we reduce period poverty ?
SD: Reducing period poverty is a gradual process and can be achieved through having open and encouraging conversation.
For example if you know of someone who may not have access you can say something like “ My mom and I are going to buy pads would you like to come with us”
We also need to have period forums especially in rural areas to give this knowledge to parents because parents need to be informed before relaying information in homes.
Through our conversation I learned so much.
From eye opening accounts of single fathers struggling to deal with menstruating teenagers, interactive sessions at women’s homes and simpler things like figuring out the science behind pads, (it’s really cool, google it), this conversation was one that I know I’ll remember for years to come.
It was so amazing learning about this astounding female-run organization.
Thank you so much to the helping her foundation for allowing me to conduct this interview and you should all definitely check them out at this link or on instagram ( @helpinghertt) . They’re also hosting a fundraising event in May that you guys should definitely check out.
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