The founders of a project that supplies sanitary products to island schools would like to work with the government ’to bring the issue of period poverty to the fore’.

Red Box Project Isle of Man (RBP), set up in 2018, wants to break the stigma attached to periods while providing menstrual supplies to girls who are in need.

Members of the public are invited to donate tampons, pads and other items, which they can drop into red boxes stationed at shops, clubs and other community spaces across the island.

These are sorted through and delivered to primary and secondary schools.

A teacher or member of school staff is designated as a point of contact whom girls can approach for help as they have either been caught short or can’t afford to buy items.

The project has red boxes in four high schools and 16 primary schools.

Becki Gelling, a founder of the island branch, said: ’We usually put around 10 packs of tampons, plus 20 packs of pads in the boxes for high schools as a starter and then with top ups we usually see what they need.

’For primary schools we put around 15 to 20 packs of pads in each box. As yet we’ve not had top-ups requested from primary schools.’

The project also supplies several pairs of brand new underwear and tights in various sizes and ’caught short’ bags containing a couple of loose pads, tampons and panty liners as perhaps girls have started their period earlier than usual.

This is so they don’t need to take a whole pack of pads or tampons.

’There have also been instances where pupils are accessing products on behalf of other family members as well (i.e... mums, older sisters etc),’ she said.

The level of support for the project has been ’nothing short of incredible’, she added, from people donating to its collection points and organisations that have reached out to them.

’The students who have accessed the boxes in their schools have been really positive and teachers have even mentioned to us that students are sharing the red box with others - bringing them to wherever the box is kept and explaining how it works,’ she said.

stigma

This, she said, has helped break down the stigma around periods and open up conversations, which is a big goal of the project.

’The idea that period poverty is something that affects people here on the island is a hard pill to swallow, but when we consider how many families the Foodbank is supporting it’s hardly a surprise that there are those within our society who need free access to menstrual products,’ she added.

The team feel really positively about the UK government recently launching a scheme for every state-funded school and college in England to order in free period products for their students.â£

RBP Isle of Man encourages the island’s government to look at doing something similar.

’We would love to work with those in government to get the issue of period poverty brought to the fore and indeed we have had a couple of MHKs already reach out to explore the issue further,’ she said.

The small team working on RBP on a voluntary basis has not had the time it would have like to dedicate towards the project due to life commitments within the last 12 months.

However, it has welcomed a new member and is ’looking forward to giving the RBP IOM the energy and time it deserves in this coming year’.

’We would like to thank the media for their support in raising awareness of the issues surrounding period poverty, and in helping bring the conversation out into the public consciousness - thereby helping to break down the barriers and stigma around talking openly about what is a natural bodily function,’ she added.