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Bloody Good Period provides menstrual products to asylum seekers, refugees and those who can’t afford them. They've worked with more than 100 partnering drop in centres, women's groups and food banks throughout the UK. They also provide a burgeoning education programme which works with those groups to establish excellent menstrual, sexual and reproductive health literacy in refugee communities.
The charity was established in October 2019, after three years as a tiny charitable project of CIVA (Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action) and is now a thriving medium-sized charity delivering around 4,000 packs of period products per month, as well as delivering monthly menstrual, sexual and reproductive health educational sessions to refugee women throughout the UK.Gabby Edlin founded Bloody Good Period in October 2016, when she was volunteering at the New London Synagogue Asylum Seeker Drop In Centre. She realised that period products were only being supplied in “emergencies”, or not at all. Periods are of course every month, and they should never feel like an emergency, so she set about collecting products to ensure that centres throughout the UK could sustainably supply to their clients without worrying shame, worry, or lack of funding.
If the most vulnerable people in our society do not have access to these essential products, this can severely negatively impact the rest of their life.In 2019 BGP conducted research in partnership with Women for Refugee Women which describes the difficulty of experiencing menstruation and poverty and destitution. You can read in full at www.bloodygoodperiod.com/period-poverty. The report presents the testimony of four asylum-seeking women who share their experiences of period poverty while living destitute, without accommodation or financial support.