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Arkansas Period Action Day: Closing Speech 2022

She still remembers the first time she got her period on a December morning in 7th grade, horrified as she quietly struggled, grappling with intense pains throughout the entirety of her lower abdomen. While she was unsure of what exactly was happening, she knew that it was meant to remain a secret. A secret. She accepted that it was a secret—not to be shared. She was okay with sacrificing her desire for knowledge to elude societal embarrassment. Even at the age of 12, she acknowledged these hefty restraints. As questions swirled throughout her head about what was happening to her, she wondered if she was dying. Would she be okay? Why could she not figure out what was wrong with her?  She genuinely was questioning whether something was wrong with her –whether she was broken. This is the story of too many young individuals, myself included. All of these issues could have been avoided by improving menstrual education in schools and implementing comprehensive programs. Our menstruators sh
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Arkansas Period Action Day: Closing Speech 2019

     "I went to yoga this week for the first time ever and at the end of the class the instructor said this quote: 'strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others.' That is why I am here before you today.      Just like Emmarie, last year, I started reading Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement by Nadya Okamoto, the creator and president of Period, and it opened my eyes to a human right’s issue I knew nothing about. Period poverty is defined as the inability to purchase or access period products. This is not just an issue in India or African countries. This is an issue in our own community.       The homeless woman you passed on your way here, she didn’t have enough money to buy a pad, so she used cardboard that she found. The incarcerated woman who can’t afford to buy period products in the commissary, she had to use stuffing from her mattress. The single mother that you sat next to in church last week, she had to choose betw
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Arkansas Period Action Day - Saturday, October 22nd 2022

  Activists Mobilize in Little Rock, Arkansas to End Period Poverty, Rally Toward Arkansas Period Action Day Little Rock — Sept 27, 2022 — The Arkansas Period Poverty Project will host a rally at the Arkansas State Capitol on October 22, 2022 at 1 pm. The rally will mark a single day of organized effort to demand legislators address the lack of period products in schools and end the taxation of period products. The Arkansas Period Poverty Project believes all menstruators deserve access to period products. Currently, 26 states in the US, including Arkansas, still have a sales tax on period products considering them luxury items, while products for men’s sexual health . such as Viagra, are considered essential goods. The average menstruator will spend an average of $11,000 in their lifetime on period products, and one in four menstruators struggled to afford period products in the last year, due to a lack of income. The most recent city- based study on period povert
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Reinvest in Conway Partners with AR Period Poverty Project

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 *Originally published on UCAnews.live* By Torrie Herrington A donation box for the period product drive sits under a table in Righteous Remedies. Photo by Torrie Herrington Reinvest in Conway is a local grassroots organization that advocates for social change. For the month of September, they have partnered with AR Period Poverty Project to supply the Conway community with essential menstruation products. AR Period Poverty Project is an organization that aims to create menstruation equity throughout the state of Arkansas. Stephanie Gray, co-founder and lead organizer with Reinvest in Conway said that the two organizations partnered because their goals align.  ”We were in talks with the Arkansas Coalition for Reproductive Justice over the summer and they informed us of the awesome work of the Period Poverty Project,” Gray said. “Their mission really aligns with ours in terms of intersectionality, mutual aid and body autonomy.” One of the main goals of Reinvest in Conway is to advocate
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Dads and Periods

Our second blog series: Dads and periods My parents are divorces, so on weekends I would go to my dads. There was no way I was going to tell my DAD that I started my period.  When he started finding my soiled underwear and clothes, he asked me. I just cried, I was so embarrassed. I was the oldest of four girls, so he didn't have a clue either. It's so funny now to think of my dad asking me about pads. He had me show him what pads I used, which he thought resembled diapers. I believe his exact words were," There's gotta be another way." He asked if they were comfortable, they were not. Maxi pads for a woman with heavy flow were not working for me. He took me to the store and we learned about period products together. He bought me a sweet treat and pain medicine for the cramps. He did this for me, then my sisters. This story is very special for me because I now know he did not have the money do that. We always took his jar of change to cash in at the CoinStar first.
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My First Period

Our first blog series: The stories of our first periods I started my period when I was 10 years old. My mom never talked to me about what a period was or why I bleed in the first place. I was only told what to do when I bleed. I used the same product that mom used, which were pretty thick maxi pads. I was taught that this was a discreet thing, that no one needed to know that I was on my period. So, if I started my period away from home, it was a nightmare. I was so afraid to tell the adult I was with, I didn't tell my sisters, I didn't know how to take my pad to the restroom with out someone noticing. I would spend weekends bleeding through toilet paper and underwear because I was so afraid to ask someone for help. I couldn't tell anyone about the cramps, then they would know I was on my period. It was a dirty secret and I had NEVER heard anyone talk about periods except my mom and that awful video we had to watch in 5th grade.  I remember a girl being in the bathroom at sc
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Who are we?

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Striving for menstrual equity in Arkansas through donations, education, and legislation. The Arkansas Period Poverty Project was founded in 2018 by Katie Clark after she read "Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement" by PERIOD founder, Nadya Okamoto. She began by reaching out to all of the public middle and high school principals in Little Rock and asked them if their students struggled with period poverty, a majority said yes.  She created a GoFundMe, had friends and family donate, purchased products, and donated them to schools in Little Rock. In 2019 we grew, adding on an Education Coordinator, Communications Coordinator, and Outreach Coordinators. In October 2019, we helped put on the first Arkansas Period Action Day rally with speakers, giveaways, and over 100 attendees. In 2020, just like everyone else, we had to pivot. We no longer held educational meetings in person, but started interviewing experts on topics like PCOS and endometriosis and posted those v
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