The mother of a 14-year old girl found it suspicious when her daughter began buying extra tampons and female hygiene pads for what looked like a class project. However, after quizzing her daughter, she realized they were going for a very good cause.
As part of an English class project, Lily Alter, a 14-year old freshman girl attending Oak Park River Forest High School in the Chicago suburbs, was asked to write a mock grant proposal for a social issue she wanted to tackle. She decided on a taboo topic – feminine hygiene for homeless woman.
Though it started as just a mock proposal, her research into the issues of female homelessness made her realized that the problem was far more real than she first imagined.
In a Chicago Channel 2 News video, Lily explains: “I thought about homelessness, I thought about women’s rights, and I wanted to combine it in a way that it may actually help people.” Lily continues that “A lot of women have to decide between food for their kids, food for themselves, a place to sleep or being healthy and having these sanitary products.”
Lily is now making “Flow Kits” with enough feminine product supplies for one menstrual cycle. Each kit consists of a mix of tampons, feminine hygiene pads, pantyliners and sanitary wipes and costs about $15.00 to assemble. She has raised around $3000.00 and predicts that she has enough money to cover her kit costs for a local homeless shelter for one year.
Lily named her project “Flowing Forward” and is handing the kits as a pilot project at a local shelter. She would like to raise additional funds and help address the need she now sees in Greater Chicago.
Watch the video to see how far Lily has gotten with her project. Way to go Lily!
Via YouTube
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