We’re making a big issue out of period poverty with Hey Girls

The Big Issue-backed Hey Girls organisation this week take a giant leap forward in their battle against period poverty as they see their products stocked in supermarket giant’s ASDA and Waitrose.

Founded just eight months ago by Celia Hodson with the help of her two daughters, Kate and Becky, Hey Girls sells sanitary towels on a ‘buy one give one’ model – meaning for every pack purchased another is donated to a woman in need.

Hurray – That’s 700 Hey Girls reusable pads and 80 menstrual cups and info packs going out to schools in Edinburgh. Nice feeling hey! pic.twitter.com/KYmCUsHKIV

— Hey Girls (@HeyGirlsUK) August 4, 2018

“It all started with a heated discussion between myself and my two daughters that results in a big hairy audacious goal,” Hodson told The Big Issue. “We simply wanted to work out if we could fix period poverty and what that would look like.”

A £50,000 investment and mentorship from Big Issue Invest’s Power Up Scotland has helped bolster the social enterprise’s ability to grow. Bridging the gap between activism and retail, the enterprise is also a key partner in the Scottish Government’s period poverty roll-out with free sanitary products to be made available to an estimated 18,800 Scottish women through foodbanks, women’s shelters and community centres.

“The supermarket listings prove that social enterprise can get into the mainstream while at the same time making the society we live in fairer and more equal,” said Kieran Daly, Scotland Manager for Big Issue Invest.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Aberdeen Standard Investments, The University of Edinburgh, Scottish Government and Brodies LLP. This unique partnership has brought creativity, technical skills and mentoring to early stage social ventures like Hey Girls, which adds value beyond the funding they receive.”

Hey Girls products will be available in 80 Waitrose stores and 280 ASDA stores across Britain from August 13, with charities and organisations local to these shops benefitting directly through each sale.

The team-up is the latest Big Issue-backed product to make its way into supermarket giants. The poverty-busting coffee from Change Please was introduced in more than 300 Sainsbury’s stores across the country in September last year.

You can pick up a multipack of the no-leak, chlorine and bleach free sanitary pads at http://bit.ly/TBISHeyGirls. For every box of pads purchased Hey Girls gives a box to someone in need.