13,000 Northland students given access to free period products in school

Free period products have been supplied to more than 100 Northland schools. Photo / Michael Cunningham

More than a thousand free tampons and pads have been provided to Northland pupils in the last year as the Government tries to improve period equity.

The initiative has been a "huge relief" to some of the 110 schools around the region that opted to take part in the first phase of the initiative.

This time last year, the Government announced it would begin a nationwide rollout of free period products in schools, starting with a trial run in Waikato. After which free period products were destined to be in all schools by June 2021.

At the time, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claimed the initiative was one way the Government could directly address poverty, help increase school attendance and make a positive impact on children's wellbeing.

Ministry of Education operations and integration leader Sean Teddy said 13,000 Northland students now had access to free products.

Lockdowns hadn't stood in the way of the initiative either, he said, as 40,000 period products were redistributed to food banks and community networks nationwide.

Bay of Islands College pastoral deputy principal Annette Wynyard said it had been a "huge relief" when the free period products arrived.

Before that, female staff had been buying products themselves to make a school stockpile.

"These products were coming out of our own pockets. There was no budget in the school to buy hygiene products. So it was the female teachers that took that role on," Wynyard said.

She would like to see the initiative expand in phase two beyond just tampons and pads to include reusable options like menstrual cups and period underwear.

Wynyard said pads and tampons bought a lot of wasteful packaging into the college - a zero-waste school.

To counter this, she said they would commit to educating students about reusable menstrual cups if they became an option.

Whangārei Girls' High School principal Anne Cooper said the initiative came at the perfect time as a previous arrangement around free period products had ended.

Whangarei Girls' High School Principal Anne Cooper said that period poverty has prevented some students from coming to school in the past. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Her school is one of 40 in Whangārei to opt-in to receive the free products she called a "simple necessity".

"We've got a lot of girls who really, really suffer at that time of the month. So it's really neat to be able to give them some products to ease that, and they're really grateful for it," she said.

"We've had kids who wouldn't come to school because of it."

It was hard to say whether attendance had increased because of the scheme, Cooper said, but the demand from the students was proof in itself.

Family Planning National Nursing advisor Rose Stewart explained how there are many factors involved in achieving period equity as not all periods come equal.

"It really is a poverty issue when people can't manage their periods. Because they don't have good products they end up having time off school or work."

Stewart pointed out how those with heavier periods have to use more products that can be expensive. Therefore other treatments such as birth control can be helpful, she said.

"It's a bit like sunscreen, isn't it?" Stewart said. "It's important and everyone should use it, but it's sold in a chemist and it's expensive."

Stewart said Family Planning Whangārei provides free period products that are funded by a bequest.

Dignity Period Equity group manager Anika Speedy said improving period equity also involved re-evaluating the infrastructure around periods.

"The funding doesn't include sanitary disposable bins, that has to come out of a separate budget, so there's a lot of things tied into it."

However, in the meantime access to as many options as possible was a priority in order to give people with periods freedom.

"Most schools have the basin separate to the toilet cubicle, so (cleaning or reusing a period cup) is not practical," Speedy said.

According to the Ministry of Education, funding is secured for the scheme until June 2024 and phase two will include providing a more tailored approach to the needs of individual schools and students.