Founder of Crimson Organic Tampons Vicki Scott. Photo / Supplied
Founder of Crimson Organic Tampons Vicki Scott. Photo / Supplied
Hawke's Bay schoolgirls now have access to free sanitary products thanks to the Government, and businesswoman and former Hawke's Bay woman Vicki Scott.
The Government initiative, the access to period products programme, began this week nationwide, supplying more than 1500 schools with Scott's organic tampons from her company Crimson Organic.
At total of 120 schools in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti have opted into the initiative.
Originally from Raureka, Hastings, Scott said she first noticed period poverty through being a young person's lawyer in the criminal court.
She said she was constantly asked by girls she was visiting to bring products like soap, tampons, pads and toilet paper as koha.
The access to period products program, began this week nationwide supplying schools with Scott's organic tampons. Photo / Supplied
"It just started happening so often and was so heartbreaking that my husband and I started doing a few personal donations and deliveries and things," she said.
Scott said she'd been advocating about the issue for quite some time when a 2019 Otago University survey showed 100,000 New Zealand schoolgirls were missing school each month to have their period because they didn't have access to products.
"That's about 10 weeks of school a year they could be missing."
Scott, who is based in Tauranga, said she knew the girls she was meeting in her work in youth law were part of this statistic.
"That's why I started Crimson Organic, which from the outset was for the purpose of having a tampon donations programme, trying to create a brand that would appeal to women that had disposable income, that would prefer a more expensive organic product and who could also buy products for other people," she said.
Scott's former school Sacred Heart College is one of the many schools in the region who have opted into the programme.
She said they are very excited about the initiative and plan to distribute to students via tutor classes so the girls can take the products home, and therefore there is no barrier to getting to school when they have their periods.
On Monday delivery of the products were dispatched to 33 schools throughout Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti.
Before heading to university, Scott spent a few seasons working at the Takapau meat works and at Wattie's on the pea line in Hastings, which she said really shaped her world view.
"It was the best people education I ever had and made me so fortunate for what I had, I grew up in a working class family but had a lot more than some of the people I met there – which lead me into criminal law," she said.
The Crimson Organic founder said period poverty can impact anyone, not just the obvious.
