Combating period poverty

Starting university in a big city like Manchester opened India and Gaby's eyes to the increasing issues around homelessness in the city.

After becoming Homeless Project Coordinators, the pair set up their own campaign to tackle period poverty – 'Once a Month' – which helped distribute sanitary products and care packages to women in need.

I'm India and I'm Gabby and this is our Stellify story.

I did a small amount of work with the homeless community back home in Suffolk but coming to university in such a big city opened my eyes to the issue of homelessness.

When Indy and I became Homeless Project Coordinators, we saw an opportunity to introduce a new project surrounding period poverty after this was a largely overlooked section of volunteering.

That's when we created Once a Month which aims to distribute care packages of sanitary items and chocolate to women in need.

Indy and I have developed a really strong friendship this year, we've pretty much spent four days at least a week together whether it's at a volunteering project, or planning another volunteering project, or going and doing research in the city centre together.

With Once a Month, our most memorable experience was our first packing session. We had no idea how many people would actually turn up. We did our first giant shop of more than 700 sanitary products, ordered loads of boxes online and put up posters around the University.

Over 30 students attended and showed that they had a real passion for fighting period poverty. It was clear that this was an issue which hit close to home for a lot of our students and having such a great first session really proved that our efforts in setting up Once a Month were worth it.

Going forward we both have big plans after graduating and ultimately we want to commit our careers to making a positive change in society.