This is a community-based initiative called the Red Box Project, which aims to support young women throughout their periods by providing free sanitary protection. This project is already up and running in schools elsewhere in England and Wales and we are raising funds for the first Red Box Project in Hackney, one of London's most poverty-stricken boroughs. Our first box will be in Haggerston Secondary School, a school with almost 60% of pupils eligible for free school meals.

The project is a simple but effective scheme to provide girls with free sanitary protection if they cannot afford, or are too embarrassed, to buy their own. Every school that signs up to the free scheme receives a red box filled with sanitary items donated by the community to be kept by the School Nurse or other appropriate member of staff. The female pupils of that school can access this box at any time and take from it a prepared brown paper bag filled with sanitary items - providing them with the reassurance that they will be protected throughout their menstrual cycle. We are careful to select the items that they prefer and we provide individual items in the box too if a bag is not necessary.

Halfway down inside of the box are our contact details so that when supplies fall below this level, a member of staff can either call or email us. The box is then replenished by us within 48 hours. This is a free service to any school who signs up with us and we will never let the box run out. We also provide posters to be placed in the girls' toilets informing them of the scheme.

No tearful panics in the loo. No wadded up toilet roll. No missed lessons or staying at home. No anxious embarrassment. We believe that all women should be provided with the assurance that their 'time of the month' is perfectly normal and that the comfort that sanitary protection provides is vital.

We need your help to raise funds to get the project up and running - we need to invest in red boxes, posters, and of course sanitary products!

Once we are started, we will need regular support from our local community and more widely, to donate sanitary products at our agreed drop-off points, or to donate financially. The project will not work without a community of supportive people who are committed to ending period poverty for local young women. We will keep you posted with how you can help us on an ongoing basis once we get going!

Thank you!

The Red Box Project Hackney