Periods Dont Stop In A Pandemic, Say Westfield And Summit Women – Westfield, NJ Patch
WESTFIELD AND SUMMIT, NJ — The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on America for four months, and that means four periods — sometimes more.
A pair of young women from Summit and Westfield have been promoting “menstrual equity” by getting supplies to women and facilities (like homeless shelters and correctional facilities) that need them.
Diya Khullar is a recent graduate of Northeastern University and a resident of Summit. She and Linzy Rosen, a third-year student at Colby College and a Westfield resident, returned from their campuses this spring and together launched a menstrual product drive. Now they need more donations.
“Our work benefits organizations for people experiencing homelessness … across Union and Essex counties,” Khullar said. “We’re hoping to amplify our work to spread awareness for menstrual equity and obtain more financial and product donations from community members.”
She said that while food and PPE shortages received attention, women’s need to obtain and buy period products did not.
“As a result of pervasive job loss, healthcare needs, and the inability for facilities to allocate adequate funds for menstrual products due to unforeseen costs, both homeless shelters and correctional facilities are in grave need of menstrual products during this time,” she said. “Tampons and pads are essential health items often overlooked due to their stigma.”
Khullar launched, in May, the “Menstrual Products for Jersey” initiative on Facebook, contacting organizations to partner with, and calling upon her network to support the effort.
She and Rosen teamed up to collect products in Westfield and garner small-dollar donations from her community.
The results? In the first month, they collected and ordered 232 panty liners, 6,823 pads, and 662 tampons.
How the Union County students met and teamed up
Khullar said she has been interested in menstrual equity since she was a sophomore in college. She led an effort to get more menstrual products in restrooms. The Northeastern student newspaper quotes her as saying, “”Why do tampons and pads in public restrooms cost money when toilet paper, which is equally necessary, is free?”
She met Rosen around July of 2019, as the latter was leading a team of organizers for the first Boston National Period Day Rally.
“We were both students at the time and found out we lived near each other!” Khullar said in an email. “Linzy lived in Westfield all of her life (20 years) and I moved to Summit in the second grade, making it 15 years for me. I have been working with Sasha Goodfriend, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women (Mass NOW), to support Massachusetts’ I AM Bill (http://www.massnow.org/iam) for the past 1.5-2 years, and am a member of Mass NOW and the Massachusetts Menstrual Equity Coalition as a result. I graduated in May.”
She noted, “Once the pandemic hit New Jersey … I was surprised to find that local organizations had a high demonstrated need, and that Essex County Correctional Facility houses several Union County inmates. Since around March, I knew I wanted to help crowdsource menstrual products for my community, so I reached out to Linzy since she was also set to come home to Union County in May.”
How to help
Diya said last week, “As an update, we have collected and distributed 8,801 pads, 662 tampons, and 232 liners so far, with $1,387.00 in funding and physical product donations. We are in need of donations to continue to provide adequately for three of the four organizations and have supplied Family Promise Union County with sufficient stock for the time being.”
She has been working with GRACE Summit, which has helped tackle local period poverty.
Reach the women via their Facebook page (watch for updated contact information later today).
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