Our Driving Question:
How can we increase access to feminine products for girls in local public schools?
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How can we increase access to feminine products for girls in local public schools?
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From a brief visit to the nurse's office, we learned that feminine hygiene products are no longer offered in a specific location in the school and if girls need products, they can ask the ladies working in the second-floor office for what they need. If products aren't offered by the nurse's office, students are not likely to assume that the best course of action is for them to ask women with whom they are not or not well acquainted for assistance with an issue that they may be embarrassed to admit is occurring. The nurse explained that they were removed from the office, because it was a hassle to fill out the documents required for all students that visit the nurse for the girls that came in as a result of their periods (especially because periods are not typically ailments that require a nurse, and the nurse is required to document every visit). Our goal is to help provide feminine hygiene products free or inexpensively to the Austin High community with funds that might already exist for that purpose and are not being used or raise money on our own. To solve the issue of documenting visits from girls needing products, we intend to find alternate locations for them to be housed, be those locations teachers' classrooms or the girls' and gender-neutral bathrooms.