How One Graduate is Helping Asylum Seekers with their Periods

Seeking asylum in a foreign country is a difficult and emotionally draining process, but for women there are added complications. Women seeking asylum in the UK are often so cash-strapped that they’re forced to use tissue paper, rolled-up t shirts or cotton wool during their periods, which puts them at risk of infection and toxic shock syndrome.

Fortunately, one London-based graduate is trying to change this. Less than a year after graduating, Gabby Edlin, 30, from Manchester, set up the charity Bloody Good Period, which has so far donated hundreds of thousands of sanitary towels to 1,200 refugees living in London and Leeds, and is planning on expanding its operations throughout the UK.

Asylum seekers aren’t permitted to work or receive benefits until their asylum application is reviewed, which, according to the UK government, is usually decided within six months. Although they’re given a place to stay, asylum seekers must live off just £36.95, making donations like the ones Gabby organizes crucial.

We spoke to Gabby about her experience of setting up Bloody Good Period and to find out how others can get involved.

How did Bloody Good Period start? What was the inspiration behind it?

I did a master’s at Central Saint Martin last year in applied imagination, which is basically design for social change. A lot of it involves learning how to start a project that really changes the way we think about how certain things are done in society. I was searching for something to do that was creative, but also was good, and giving in the most sort of un-annoying way.

I was interning at an asylum seeker drop-in center, and there were no pads there even though there were things like food, toiletries, nappies and clothes, so I started questioning why there weren’t any and was told they were only there in emergency. I couldn’t help but wonder how your period starting without a tampon or sanitary towels wasn’t considered an emergency.

I started collecting pads and it grew into friends donating and people I’d never met sending pads to me asking how they could help. Now, we’re a team of four with about 20-30 volunteers and we’ve given away hundreds of thousands of pads and toiletries for asylum seekers in London and Leeds. We’re trying to grow throughout the UK so no women have to be without sanitary towels.

How did people react to your setting it up?

Everyone’s been really supportive. They weren’t really surprised that I was doing something to do with women. My dad said to me, “I’ve put £10 into your account to go and buy sanitary towels”, so that was very sweet. Everyone was really on board with it. I haven’t yet met a woman who thinks it’s a bad idea.

How do you get donations to refugees?

There are asylum seeker drop in centers that are already running throughout churches and synagogues or various community centers, and we have a person who picks up the pads from us depending on how many they need. We try to be really overly generous with the pads that are given so the centers can, in turn, be generous.

Was there a steep learning curve in the job, especially in terms of how you cope with these women’s stories of grief and loss?

It’s really difficult because you do wonder what has happened to these people. If they want to talk about it, they can, but we’re really just there so they feel welcome. By saying that we care about your vagina and we care about your cleanliness and health, it shows we care about them as people. It’s also really nice because a lot of the men we meet at the centers will get pads for their wives and girlfriends and daughters, and no one’s really embarrassed about it to be honest. Everyone’s really open and lovely, and that’s the most important thing.  

Is that surprising, given how taboo the topic is in some parts of the world?

It’s only taboo if you let people make it taboo. Originally, I was encouraged to pass out pads at the centers discretely, but I just thought “no, I’m not doing that”. There are so many girls who would be too embarrassed to ask their mums to buy them sanitary towels. Who’s going to ask a complete stranger?

Often they don’t even speak the language, so the only way to communicate is by holding up different ones and pointing. Like if someone wants one with wings, they might not know the word for wings. So they have to point to the one with wings.

So, how can people get involved?

If they go to the website, there are lots of different ways you can do it. We’re quite traditional in that we do need money and we do need donations, but there’s also real potential for creative collaborations. We love people sending in their artwork or their videos. We’ve got a spoken word poet who’s just written a piece coming up. We’re really interesting in hearing people’s point of view, different types of voices. Anyone who’s ever identified as a woman or has a vagina is welcome to get involved and tell us how they feel about it.

Where do you hope to take Bloody Good Period in the future? Is it a short-term project?

We’ll be around for as long as people need period stuff. Even though the topic is getting a lot of air time at the moment, it’s not going to be over any time soon. As long as the asylum seekers can need them, we’ll be there to provide for them.