Clever startup idea helps to reduce 'period poverty' on campus

“It’s that time of the month…” “I’ve got my monthly visitor…” The euphemisms are common around menstrual cycles and periods. There are also often feelings of shame which multiply if you can’t afford the necessary sanitary products. Unfortunately, that’s the reality for an overwhelming number of people in Aotearoa New Zealand and many of them are students in the University community.

Sonja Epskamp, health promotion adviser at the University of Auckland says ‘period poverty’ is an area of focus for the Student Wellbeing and Equity team.

"As our students face challenges with basic living costs, for many this can include reduced access to menstrual products, which can impact their dignity,” Epskamp says.

Period poverty can also cause students to miss classes or work. To alleviate this stress and reduce preventable absences, the Student Wellbeing and Equity team has collaborated for the past three years with departments and faculties across the University to provide free menstrual products, and provide students what they need, period. 

Student spaces have offered disposable pads and tampons and reusable cups and pads across the University’s campuses and have increased supplies regularly to support more students in need.

But the team wanted to respond to feedback that not all students were keen on accessing these products in public spaces like Student Hubs and that they’d prefer to access them in bathrooms. That’s when alumna Aditi Gorasia, who founded startup Ads on Pads with a similar goal of reducing period poverty across the motu, reached out.

Ads on Pads is a simple concept – pad dispensers are set up in toilet areas, and the products they contain are free to use. Supporters of the concept can promote their business or organisation through paid advertising on the dispenser fronts and the pad wrappers.

Gorasia, Ads on Pads CEO and founder, says she first became aware of the issues around period poverty when she was the women’s rights officer of the Auckland University Students’ Association eight years ago.

“No one should ever feel anxious about accessing period products. Most times this comes from lack of affordability or being caught off guard,” Gorasia says.

"Our mission is to reduce this anxiety by making free period products widely accessible. Starting at the University of Auckland was a no-brainer as it is the place I came up with the idea for Ads on Pads and it’s a great way to support students.”

When students arrived back on campus following mid-Semester break, 50 new dispensers for the free pads had been installed across the City and Grafton campuses in toilet facilities as well as Student Hubs.

The team also thought about how to make it easy to ask for the products in person. When visiting a Student Hub, one of those euphemisms will come in handy, after all. They can say “I’m here for my monthly meeting”. Staff at the Hubs have been trained to respond to this prompt and distribute what’s needed.

The University’s partnership with Ads on Pads will allow for the distribution of an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 pads each week.