Interview with Amika George
Disclaimer: These interviews were originally published in May 2021.
We sat down with Amika George, founder of Free Periods which campaigns to end period poverty in the UK.
Ricebox Studio: How did you become an activist?
Amika George: I became an activist quite by accident. I don’t think I actually understood what the word meant when I first started Free Periods at the age of 17, but I did know what I wanted to achieve and why it was so important. I read an article about girls missing school because they were too poor to afford pads and tampons and the government didn’t seem to want to help them. I felt really angry that this whole cross section of girls were being ignored as if they didn’t matter and something kick started in me – I just felt that I had to do something.
I started a petition as the backbone to my campaign, asking for free pads and tampons to be made available in all schools, and started raising as much awareness around period poverty as I possibly could, talking to magazines and newspapers giving interviews about why we needed government intervention. When the government still didn’t respond, we organised a protest to make as much noise as possible.
Our first success was in securing some money from the Tampon Tax fund to be given to charities tacking period poverty but our real success came in 2019 when the Chancellor pledged to end period poverty in schools and colleges by giving funding to all schools to offer pads and tampons to all students who need them. Now every primary and secondary school and college can access the products they need and no child needs to miss school because they are too poor to manage their period.
RS: Who are the most vulnerable when it comes to period poverty?
AG: Everyone who’s affected by period poverty is vulnerable, and period poverty touches people of all ages. We see period poverty affect women in prisons, the homeless and swathes of refugees. They are all being ignored by the government and continue to suffer in silence.
RS: What are the biggest challenges with ending period poverty in both the UK and internationally?
AG: The taboo surrounding periods is a huge challenge, because we have been conditioned into feeling ashamed and embarrassed about issues that affect our bodies for generations. As soon as the subject of menstruation is mentioned, people close up, and that includes women. I think things are changing now but it’s going to take time for us to change perceptions and attitudes. The conversations around periods and our bodies need to be turned on its head and only when women start to feel less ashamed will men feel they can join in the conversation.
We would like to thank Amika George for her time and sharing with us her activist journey of tackling period poverty in schools in UK and beyond.
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