The Red Box Project at Rhyl School

Heather Shafer, Project Administrator, at Rhyl School became involved with the Red Box Project a few months ago. The charity is a community-based, not-for-profit initiative, which aims to support young people throughout their periods by providing red boxes filled with free sanitary products to local schools.

The Red Box Project was founded in March 2017 by three friends who wanted to give young people in their local area access to sanitary products. After reading about ‘Period Poverty‘ in the news, they were angered at the idea that young women were missing out on their education because they couldn’t afford the products they needed during their period.

They decided to take action and contacted several secondary schools in Portsmouth to ask if a constantly stocked box of menstrual products would be welcomed. The feedback from teachers was that the issue was real and the resource was needed.

Rhyl School now has a red box in which people can donate items that will then be given out to girls in schools. Rhyl is a deprived area and does suffer with modern poverty. Families are relying on food banks, people are living on the streets or having to be put in temporary accommodation because they can’t afford to live. Sanitary products are at bottom of the shopping list, if they’re even thought about. It’s heartbreaking to think people can’t afford basic hygiene products – a box of tampons or a packet of towels might only cost £1 or £2 but when you can’t afford to eat that’s a lot of money.

£100 was raised by the site and they bought and donated items to the box within Rhyl School. If you would like any further information, please click here for ideas on how you can help.