Working to stop period poverty for homeless women

02 May 2019

WATCH: How the Student Group winner of our Volunteer of the Year Award saw an issue affecting our community – and did something about it

The University has named Once a Month as the Student Group winner of its Volunteer of the Year 2019 Award.

Once a Month, run by India Burgess and Gabriella Hartfield, is a monthly project in which student volunteers who are self-identifying women put together packages containing sanitary items. They then distribute them to homeless women around the city centre.

They also donate packages to charity partners, including Mustard Tree and MASH (Manchester Action on Street Health).

The project aims to be part of the fight against period poverty, to enable all women to access the sanitary products they need for their periods. Once a Month seeks to help enable every homeless woman in Manchester have the products she needs each month. They additionally aim to reduce the stigma surrounding periods, and period poverty as a whole, raising awareness of the issue, and how everyone can all help to combat it.

Nominator Jennifer Rae said: “India and Gabriella designed the project together and worked with the staff team to select charity partners who could support the work of their volunteer team. They also completed budget plans and risk assessments for the projects, to ensure the project would run smoothly.

“They were already working with homeless people, saw an issue in their community and did something about it.”

Watch their story here: