This year, King’s Volunteering are partnering with The Pachamama Project, a charity working to build a network of volunteers to make reusable sanitary pads for those in need.
Period poverty—a lack of access to hygiene facilities, menstrual products, and education—affects millions of people who menstruate, despite menstrual health being a basic human right.
Rooted in socio-environmental inequalities, period poverty particularly impacts communities already disadvantaged by other factors, with well-documented psychological and health effects. Charities like the Binti Period, The Pachama Project and Bloody Good Period are working to tackle these issues in a range of ways, agreeing that period poverty shouldn’t exist and calling for policy changes and urgent action from governing bodies.
With more than 2 billion people around the world menstruating, this is a public health crisis that cannot be ignored.
This year, King’s Volunteering are partnering with The Pachamama Project to mobilise a network of students and staff at King’s to create reusable sanitary pads (“Pacha Pads”) to gift to refugees across the world who are experiencing period poverty.
If you have a sewing machine, you can contribute by creating Pacha Pads at home and donating them at our Donation Stations across King’s campuses.
If you do not have access to a sewing machine but you would still like to contribute to the project, you can hand-sew the fabric bags that the Pacha Pads are gifted to their recipients in. You can either sew these at home or come to our workshop on Tuesday 19 November, KCLSU Activity Room 2 on Guy's Campus where we will provide all the materials and walk you through the process.
Find instructions, templates and the locations of our Donation Stations on King’s Volunteering’s Campaigns page.
Want to learn more about how you can get involved in the King’s Volunteering community? Follow @ServiceAtKings to stay up-to-date and sign up to the King’s Volunteering platform to explore over 150 volunteering opportunities with charities and community organisations across London and the UK.