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69. Helping Women Period: A Mission to End Period Poverty with Lysne Tait
•Dr. Monica Minjeur & Lysne Tait•Episode 69
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Join Dr. Monica as she interviews Lysne Tait, co-founder of Helping Women Period, a nonprofit tackling period poverty since 2015. Lysne shares how the organization has distributed over 4 million menstrual products, educated communities, and advocated for menstrual equity. Discover how period poverty affects 1 in 4 people, why access to menstrual products is vital, and how you can help through donations, product drives, or spreading awareness. Together, let’s address this pressing public health issue!
Welcome back to the Cycle Wisdom podcast, where we empower women to restore natural menstrual cycles to improve health and promote fertility. On today's episode, I have a special guest to share with all of our listeners. We have Lisne Tait, who is a nationally recognized leader in the fight to end period poverty. Lisne is the co founder and executive director of the organization Helping Women Period. Since its launch in 2015, Helping Women Period has provided more than 4 million menstrual products to women and teens in need throughout Michigan, and works to end period poverty through partnerships, advocacy, Donations and education lizney and helping women period have been featured in Oprah's O Magazine, teen Vogue today.com, Forbes and more. I am so excited to have you share your story with us Lizney. Thank you for joining us.
Lysne:
Thank you for letting me be here. looking forward to it.
Monica:
Tell me a little bit as far as how this all got started and what inspired you to, found this group.
Lysne:
So I call it an accidental nonprofit because we really didn't mean to start a nonprofit. My friend and I read an article in Huffington Post in January, 2015 about the lack of menstrual products for homeless women. And we were Shocked because we thought there was a government program to cover that like SNAP or WIC, you know, women, infants, and children, you think they'd give pads and diapers and formula and they only do formula. And we just thought we needed to do something. So we said, we'll have a breakfast. We'll invite 30 of our closest friends. Maybe we'll raise$500 buy a couple of cases and give it to the local. Shelter. We put it on Facebook on a Sunday. On Tuesday, we had to change the venue because we had 100 people coming not 30. And then on Thursday that week, we filed nonprofit paperwork because we had people from all over the world who wanted to send us money. And we wanted to be as transparent as possible about what we were doing.
Monica:
Wow. If you have a dream, go big, right?
Lysne:
Well, I never even thought that this is what I was going to be doing. You know, I was an English teacher first, and then I stayed at home with my kids and I was a volunteer for everything. And when my friend said, let's do this. I went, sure,
Monica:
here we go. Jump on in.
Lysne:
Yep. And so we had our breakfast, we raised about$4,000 and thought we didn't want to send all our money to Amazon. We did this because we want to help our own community. And so we looked around and we found a janitorial supply company called Michco that would sell it to us at cost. And he said, as long as you buy a hundred cases, we'll sell it to you at So a hundred cases was$4,000, which is what we made at the breakfast. So we said, okay. And we ended up having the shelter that we were working with only had room for two cases. So we had pads and tampons in our living rooms in our cars. I had two teen boys at that time, and they learned very quickly that this was important and it wasn't anything to joke about. And they learned how to move it. They were voluntold from a very early age.
Monica:
For a lot of our listeners. This term period poverty is, is maybe new. so what is period poverty and how does it impact people in communities and especially in underserved areas?
Lysne:
well, period poverty is the lack of access to period products. Everyone loves someone who's had a period and every one of us who've had a period have had those times when you get it in a public place You didn't know you were going to have it. You have to find a bathroom that has. Period products in it, or you have to look in your purse or you think about, do I have it in my car? For most of us, we can just go home and get cleaned up and change our clothes. And we have a nice little stash under the sink. But one in four people can't afford to buy the products that they need. So that fear in the pit of their stomach, when that happens, that shame, it's there with them all the time, you know, every month, not just, you Occasionally. So when we realized that there was one in four people miss school and work because they don't have the products they need at home, we decided that this is something that we really need to help solve. I mean, it's a solvable issue. Other countries have solved it, right? Like Scotland and New Zealand, and those are small countries, but it's still And if people don't have the products that they need, they'll use things that are not. medically appropriate. So they'll use t shirts or socks or those nasty paper towels or toilet paper and or they'll use the products that they do get. They do have for longer than suggested, so that opens them up to infection. And if you don't have enough money to buy the products that you need, you probably don't have good health insurance. So you use the emergency room as your doctor's office. And. It just becomes a drain on everyone, not just the people who are affected.
Monica:
Yeah. So how can individuals or communities get involved with Helping Women Period to support your mission and help improve this, situation of period poverty?
Lysne:
So we have three things you could do. One is Money. it costs us$40 to provide one person's need for an entire year. And then the other thing is we have people who do product drives, who sew bags for us. So we can distribute these products discreetly. People collect those. Makeup bags, because we can fit 15 tampons in there and just give those to high school or college students. They really appreciate those. And then really the biggest thing is to spread the word, to let people know that this is an issue in our own backyard. We often hear when we hear about period poverty, a lot of people think of developing countries, you know, girls in India don't go to school or girls in Africa. And That's true, but it's also right here. And even in very affluent school districts, it's one in four students who don't have the stuff they need. And, you know, we've heard in the news a lot recently about period products in schools and so we've been working hard and helping women period has been working hard to try and advocate for free products in schools for products in public spaces. Incarcerated people need products too on some prisons, they get five pads, and that's it, and they have to buy or. You know, barter or whatever they can for the rest, and if they don't get any tampons, because who knows what's in them. And, you know, it's just, it's so dehumanizing. I mean, this is an issue of public health, I always feel like if we can take care of this basic need, right? Like we can do free lunch and schools. We can do free tampons and pads in schools, and it doesn't hurt anyone One of my favorite quotes is JFK said a rising tide lifts all boats. And I think if we take care of those basic needs for everyone. It can only make our whole world better.
Monica:
Absolutely. So when you started this project, it was, in the Michigan area where you're from, where are your efforts currently throughout the States?
Lysne:
they're still mostly in Michigan, but we teach other groups across the U S so that they can do this. I don't need to be a big conglomerate. I just want to be able to solve this problem. And I really want to legislate myself out of a job. So I talked to cities, counties, my state. I also working with a group that's talking to the federal government and there's a bill in the house called the menstrual equity act for all that would provide free products in schools and public buildings and Incarcerated places. So, I really and push that and I try and teach people about how they can do what we do when we created this. We tried really hard to make it easily replicable so that anyone can take what we've learned and go from there. I get emails every day from people all over the U. S. saying, how do I do this? Or I need product. I live in the middle of Kentucky and there's no place, you know, often we think of. You know, homeless people or low income people may think of kids under the, bridges in different cities, but we don't think of the rural poverty and if there's no public transportation, you can't get to a store if you don't have a car, there's so many things that are barriers to this issue. And it's something that everyone has dealt with in their life. I mean, even if you're not a menstruator. You, deal with people who've menstruate all the time. And so why not help them be confident and, increase their dignity and not have them have to worry about food or tampons
Monica:
so you had mentioned one of the things is that you hope for people to help spread the word. So what are some ways proactively that people can raise awareness and actually drive change in their communities when it comes to this?
Lysne:
On our website we have a way to get involved and we have toolkit so that you can do a product drive in your area. And then just talk to homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, schools, and most of them will happily accept what you've gathered. Especially schools, a lot of the schools that I deal with, The counselor or the secretary or the teacher are the ones that are actually buying those products for their students. You can never know if the machine in the school is going to be filled, if it's going to work., It's very frustrating. And if you have time to go from your locker to the office and then back to your locker and then back to school, you know, it's just, we need to figure out a way so that it's available, like toilet paper.
Monica:
Too many extra steps makes it challenging, right? So can you share with us some maybe personal stories or testimonials that show, how the work that you do with Helping Women Period, how that's impacted women's lives in a positive way?
Lysne:
I was talking with a group of students at a local college and explaining what we do and how we do it. And I, showed some bags. We have volunteers that sew handmade bags for us a little drawstring. And I said, you know, this is, this is something that we do and we don't have them refill it. It's just something that we have, but I don't really know, how it goes over because I don't see people. Multiple times. And one of the girls said, let me, let me help you carry all your stuff out. And as we were walking out, she said, I just want you to know that I was one of those people who received a bag and I still have it. And it made me feel so good because somebody thought of me when they were sewing this. she was a foster kid who had gone to college and she's like, I didn't, feel like nobody thinks of me. And then when I got that, I really believed it.
Monica:
Beyond just getting the product, right. Just knowing you're cared for and someone has got you on their side.
Lysne:
Yeah. And I think things into schools and the, the counselors and the secretaries are like, yay, it's the period lady. People are so grateful and so shocked when I'm like I go to a food bank and I'm handing them out. They just, what? Yes. It's amazing how much just that little thought, you know, just a little bit of kindness goes so long.
Monica:
So if people are wanting to find out more about what you do, how they can get involved with Helping Women Period, where can they find you?
Lysne:
We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram. We have a website, helpingwomenperiod. org we're on Tik TOK
Monica:
And we'll post all of those links in our show notes so that our listeners can get involved. Would love to see, what people say, Hey, where can we take it and run with it? And, you know, setting up either a group within your own community, doing those drives that we talked about and if nothing else, just creating awareness. I mean, that statistic you shared was new to me, you know, one in four women are dealing with this and that's, that's huge. I mean, look around you at the friends that you have, you know, all of us know that, you probably know somebody who's dealing with it and may or may not be able to share that this is an issue for them. So finding ways we can help meet those basic needs is, huge. Anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners?
Lysne:
Just spread the word, really. I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity to talk about. Period poverty and to spread the word in different areas and feel free. People can email me and I will tell them what groups are in their area. If there's other groups that do what we do. We partner with a group called the alliance for period supplies, which is a national group. They're kind of related to the national diaper bank. There's 160, at least groups like us all over the U S but together we can fight it and we can. Legislate me out of a job, please.
Monica:
Would love to have that for you, thank you so much for what you do, for bringing awareness to this and for bringing awareness to our listeners on ways that we can help and have a better understanding for compassion when it comes to period poverty.
Lysne:
Thank you so much for having me.
Monica:
If you want to join the mission for Helping Women Period, please check out our show notes for the resources Lizni mentioned in our interview. There is information on the website helpingwomenperiod. org as well as a link for a video on how to host a period supply drive if you want to make a difference in your own community in a big way. Make sure to tag us, Radiant Clinic, on social media if you are hosting a drive, and we will make sure to repost and share to support the cause. I am cheering for you and can't wait to see how you go change the world with this information.
