Help pack period supplies for women on the streets this weekend

While a few thousand women and allies are marching down Ben Franklin Parkway for women’s rights this Saturday, Nikole Czapp will be at Old Pine Community Center in Society Hill, stuffing yellow bags full of pads, tampons and other feminine products.

#HappyPeriod, founded by Angeleno Chelsea VonChaz, is described as “a social movement providing menstrual hygiene kits to homeless women.”

Volunteers gather monthly to collect products and make up kits with a variety of supplies — “each one ideally will contain enough product for one monthly cycle,” Czapp said — in small, branded yellow bags. The bags are then distributed directly to women living on the streets and to local shelters.

Learn more about the organization here:

Saturday’s event is the first of the Philadelphia chapter, which Czapp, a medical student, decided to start after moving here recently from Miami, where she’d also launched a chapter with VonChaz’s help.

“Menstrual hygiene products for the homeless and underserved population with periods are such an under-recognized need that we are helping to fill, one yellow bag at a time,” she wrote in an email.

The mission is larger than filling an immediate need, though.

“Another major mission of #HappyPeriod is to breakdown the taboos and stigmas around menstruation and as a healthcare professional, I appreciate the chance to educate the community and help break down some of the barriers to menstrual equity,” Czapp wrote.

After the kits are made at this Saturday’s event, they’ll be distributed directly to women experiencing homelessness in Center City and near the Convention Center as well as to the Eliza Shirley House Shelter for Women. Admission to the event is one or more menstrual hygiene products (such as pads, tampons, cotton underwear or hygiene wipes) or a $5 donation.