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 poverty revealed that “46 percent of women had to choose between food and menstrual hygiene products.” The Arkansas Period Poverty Project is working to eliminate this in Arkansas.

On Arkansas Period Action Day, the Arkansas Period Poverty Project and its supporters will be rallying to fight for equitable access to period products. They are calling for two major actions: for period products to be freely accessible in schools and for the elimination of the “tampon tax” (sales tax on menstrual products).

Arkansas Period Poverty Project founder, Katie Clark, has been a leader in the Menstrual Movement in Arkansas, working for the past four years to donate period products to schools across the state, educate young menstruators on their health, and collaborating with legislators to introduce bills that promote menstrual equity.

About Arkansas Period Poverty Project

Katie Clark created the Arkansas Period Poverty Project after reading Nadya Okamoto’s “Period Power.” She began reaching out to the principals of local middle and high schools to find out if their students were experiencing period poverty. A majority said yes, so she jumped into action. Clark started by creating a GoFundMe and had friends and family donate. She then purchased period products and created period packs, enough products to last one period, and donated them to schools in Central Arkansas. As time went on, she recruited volunteers to help with the group’s mission, adding on outreach coordinators, an education coordinator, and a communications coordinator. In the past four years, Clark and her team have raised over $2,000, donated over 2,000 period packs, created hundreds of educational posts, and passed Act 933.

Founded in 2018, the Arkansas Period Poverty Project is a community group of young adults. Our mission is to promote menstrual equity in Arkansas through donations, education, and legislation. Thanks to the support of generous community members, the Arkansas Period Poverty Project is able to regularly donate period products and period packs to schools across the state, so that students have the products they need to stay in class. In partnership with menstrual experts, the group is able to provide much needed education to menstruators of all ages.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
Read more

Who are we?

Image
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
Read more

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
Read more