Project AIM was asked to join a national pilot project under the Menstrual Equity Fund, to help fight “period poverty.”
The Agassiz-based non-profit is scaling up its efforts to offer educational workshops and videos on menstruation, as well as giving away free products under the pilot.
“This will allow us to help many people who menstruate and their families,” said Miel Bernstein, co-founder of Project AIM in a post about being chosen for the pilot.
The Project AIM team sees it as “an honour” to participate as one of six organizations selected across Canada, with industry and a range of partners, in the groundbreaking pilot. The pilot is going ahead with financial support from Women Canada Femmes, and delivered by Food Banks Canada.
Food Banks Canada, one of the country’s largest organizations fighting food insecurity, has taken on the challenging of running the Menstrual Equity Fund pilot.
Agassiz-based Miel Bernstein and Tiffany Francis created Project AIM just before Christmas 2020 during the pandemic, with the aim of supplying free menstrual and incontinence products to those in need. They believe it’s a human right, not a luxury, to offer barrier-free access to such a basic product.
“In addition to financial support for our ‘Education.Period.’ workshops and video products, we are so grateful to have received this generous delivery of 5,562 packages of menstrual product for distribution as part of the pilot.”
Project AIM thanked their partners, The Period Purse, Moontime Connections, Free Periods Canada, Hago Canada and Monthly Dignity, for collaboration and networking over the course of the project “as we are working toward our mutual goal of scaling up menstrual education and fighting menstrual stigma,” Bernstein said.
The national menstrual equity pilot project, started last year, and has almost 400 pilot sites across Canada.
“Disposable product supplier, reusable product supplier, and distribution partnerships have been established,” according to the pilot web page from Women and Gender Equality Canada. “Six menstrual equity organizations across the country have been selected to scale up their education and awareness activities.”
Based on the early success of the pilot, the equality ministry is providing up to $5 million in supplemental funding for Food Banks Canada to enhance the impact of the Menstrual Equity Fund pilot project.
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