University College Isle of Man (UCM) has installed free sanitary machines to increase the accessibility of female hygiene products and to support students who struggle to afford sanitary wear.
UCM’s Student Services team had previously facilitated their own fully stocked ‘Red Box’, which offered free, emergency sanitary items to students who were unable to access the products themselves.
Hannah May, UCM’s Health and Well-being Co-ordinator, based in Student Services, noticed a rise in demand, ‘Students coming in to ask for sanitary protection became a much more regular occurrence, which led us to consider a better way to meet the obvious increased need’.
Student Services’ experience is backed-up by research carried out in 2017 by the UK branch of the global children’s charity, ‘Plan International’, which surveyed a group of over 1000 girls and young women aged 14-21 in the UK, and found that 1 in 10 were unable to afford basic sanitary protection, 1 in 7 had struggled to afford it, 49% had missed at least one day of school because of their period, and 42% had to rely on folded toilet paper to get them through the day.
Four years on, and given an impending cost of living crisis, it is fair to assume these numbers will have increased.
Hannah May, said ‘Period poverty is a real issue, and we don’t want students missing class or other UCM activities, because they can’t afford basic female hygiene products. We are proud of the wide ranging support we provide for students at UCM and are delighted to now be able to add this to our list of services. The installation of these new machines, has offered students the ability to obtain products discreetly across all of UCM’s campuses when the need arises.’