This year, the theme of International Women’s Day is #BalanceforBetter, celebrating women’s achievements as well as focusing on a call for a more gender-balanced world.
We believe that every child should have equal access to education, regardless of gender. This is their fundamental human right. It is completely unacceptable that any young person should miss out on their education because they have their period. That is why we are calling on the Government to provide funding for free menstrual products for schools and colleges across the country.
At The Red Box Project, we have learnt that there truly is strength in numbers and we would love for your school to get involved: opening up conversations around periods, breaking down barriers and encouraging engagement in politics and society.
How can you join us?
1. Discuss with young people the importance of gender equality in schools. Why does it matter? How do periods fit into this issue? What should be done about it?
2. Take action: we’ve included several activities suitable for English lessons, citizenship lessons, PSHE, form times or debating or feminism clubs, to get students to think about #FreePeriods. We’ve included an activity to help students to write to their MP about the issue. This is a real world problem and letters could be sent to their MP in anticipation of a response.
3. Join the #FreePeriods movement online. We would love to hear from schools tweeting or commenting about the difference #FreePeriods would make to their students. Please do tag @RedBoxProject and @AmikaGeorge in your tweets.
To download our teaching resources, please click on the link below.
We would love to hear your feedback on how the discussions and activities went. Please email:
Thank you for joining us in the fight for #FreePeriods