Outreach to End Period Poverty in St. Louis and the U.S.

Dignity Period board member Anne Sebert Kuhlmann and her team at St. Louis University conducted a research study that uncovered unmet menstrual hygiene needs among low-income women in St. Louis.

The study found:

Nearly two thirds (64%) of women were unable to afford needed menstrual hygiene supplies during the previous year.
One-fifth of women (21%) experienced this monthly.
Many women make do with cloth, rags, tissues, or toilet paper; some even use children’s diapers or paper towels taken from public bathrooms.
Nearly half of women (46%) could not afford to buy both food and menstrual hygiene products during the past year.
There was no difference in menstrual hygiene needs by age.

Read more about the research.

Dignity Period works with collaborative agencies throughout the U.S. to provide sustainable, washable and reusable pad kits to those who menstruate.
These kits consist of four pads. With proper care, kits can provide up to
18 months of coverage.
To date, Dignity Period has provided over 2000 people with kits in communities throughout the U.S.

Collaborative Partnerships include:

Assistance League St. Louis
Daughters of Destiny
Jennings High School
Loving Bottoms Diaper Bank
National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis
New Madrid Family Resource Center
Operation Food Search
Raising Girls
Renewing Dignity
Saint Louis County Library
Saint Louis Public Schools
The Flow Initiative
Washington University

To learn more, listen to this radio segment with outreach participants.

This is not a luxury. It’s a need. It affects a woman’s sense of self, her sense of dignity and her ability to participate in life.

Anne Sebert Kuhlmann

Dignity Period Board Member