Loreto Kilkenny draw national attention with act against period poverty

The student council from the Granges Road school has been successful in their two-year campaign for the provision of free period products in the school’s bathrooms.

The Loreto girls outlined that period products are not a luxury and are a complete necessity.

“You wouldn’t expect to go into a bathroom without any toilet roll,” they said. “This is the same thing.” 

This is why the Loreto girls are not willing to wait for government action and decided to take the responsibility on and begin to combat period stigma and poverty themselves. 

“This is something the government is talking about, but there is no sign of when that will happen, so it did feel like we had to do something ourselves now.”

While talking about the effects of both period poverty and the negative stigma that comes with it Medha Trehan, chairperson of the student council said: “A period can happen at any time. It’s really awkward to ask someone about it, especially in the middle of class.

“The option of going to the office wasn’t being used very often, but now we are refilling every two days,” she added. “The products will nearly be empty when we do, so it’s more necessary than we even thought.”

The girls have already begun to notice positive changes such as de-stigmatising periods and the praise of the students for what they have achieved so far.

“We haven’t seen any misuse or abuse of the products,” Medha continued. “We have been getting lots of positive feedback so far.”

Their campaign has helped the school population open up on the subject of periods.

“I’ve actually noticed that people are mentioning periods more often,” added Aoife, another student council member.

The students have worked hard to set this plan in motion after their long campaign and have been very successful to date. All eyes will be on the trial as it draws to an end in the next week.