Periodic Coalition has been cooperating with Biedronka since 2021. In the first year of cooperation, approximately 1.4 million menstrual products were donated to the needy. In 2022, these numbers increased to include the delivery of almost 2 million menstrual pads and tampons. Every month, as many as 200,000 menstrual hygiene products are sent from warehouses to the organizations gathered in the Periodic Coalition, donated by a popular retail chain.
– The Periodic Coalition is expanding and is getting stronger in its activities year by year. Delivering hundreds of thousands of menstrual pads to those in need is the best proof of our agency. The most important thing is to be where women need our support. Activists of the Periodic Coalition do it every day - says Dominika Kulczyk, President of the Kulczyk Foundation.
Menstrual pads and tampons go where the need is greatest: schools, hospitals, orphanages, community centers, aid centers and centers for people in the homeless crisis. As part of this year's cooperation, menstrual aids are also used at train stations, reception points and accommodation places where refugees from across the eastern border stay.
- This year, we are also sharing menstrual hygiene products from the Biedronka chain with refugees from Ukraine who are looking for a safe place in our country. Many of them, protecting their family, forget about their needs. That is why, despite such a down-to-earth gesture as menstrual pads, we try to help them - adds Urszula Okoń, senior specialist in promotion and raising income from the Polish Red Cross.
The Periodic Coalition is an association of organizations and experts that deal with the normalization of menstruation. Recently, the Lower Silesian Oncological Foundation and the Institute of Equality joined the Coalition. The organizations that make up the Periodic Coalition fight poverty and menstrual exclusion and raise awareness about menstrual health. Thanks to cooperation with Biedronka, it is possible in dozens of places throughout Poland.
– We know that the problem of menstrual poverty has not disappeared, but has even deepened as a result of the war in Ukraine and the wave of refugees in our country. There is still a lot to do. That is why this year we have been even more involved in further assistance - says Karolina Błońska, Senior Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility at the Biedronka chain.
The European Parliament points out that menstrual poverty affects one in ten women in Europe. The problem occurs in most countries in the world, including Poland. According to the report by the Kulczyk Foundation, every fifth Polish woman did not have the money to buy appropriate menstrual products, and as many as 39% of women from poor homes had to give up their purchase at least once in their lives for other household expenses.
