Irise

Irise International is an award winning, global leader in menstrual health programming, research, advocacy and policy development. Irise’s vision is a world where everyone can realise their potential, unlimited by their periods. We support young people and their communities in the UK and East Africa to overcome period related barriers through delivering practical programmes, undertaking innovative research and advocating for policy and practice change. We believe that when we are led by young women and informed by robust evidence, long lasting social change can be achieved.

Work supported by Act for Change Fund

Empower Period is a movement of young people from Irise advocating to end period poverty and shame at the local and national level. The Empower Period Forum is the vessel through which young people are catalysing work to end disadvantage due to periods in the UK within a generation. The movement is building a positive narrative about menstruation and enabling young people to dismantle menstrual stigma in their own communities and use their learning to shape national policy and practice. This will address the root cause of the challenges that girls face during menstruation and break the intergenerational cycle of shame, misinformation and low self-esteem.

Young leadership is at the heart of Empower Period. We believe that young people are uniquely placed to lead the process of ending period poverty and shame, as they are more aware of gender inequality and are still forming their attitudes to menstruation.

We strongly believe that when young people have tools and opportunities, then they can create meaningful change in their communities at the local and national level; in fact, we believe that change is rarely possible or sustainable without them.

Resources or videos we would like to be highlighted on the website:

• Video of the Empower Period Gathering event at the end of 2020 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3jHE6WtaZ4&t=54s
• Our Empower Period Podcasts available on Buzzsprout and Spotify – https://www.buzzsprout.com/1160294