In an effort to clothe young girls without the financial means of buying sanitary products with “strength and dignity,” the executive director of the non-profit organization Academic Abundance, along with members of the Clinton-Sampson Rotary Club, packed 400 dignity pouches to be distributed at local schools earlier this week.

Dr. Marilyn Benton, whose husband Ken is both executive director of Academic Abundance and a member of the noon-day Rotary club, said the non-profit is involved in a teen pregnancy prevention program at three of the local high schools and, while involved with that program, she discovered among the many issues facing young teen girls is what she called a problem with “period poverty,” a term she said former Rotary District Governor Dawn Rochelle used to describe what Rocehlle saw as an ongoing and serious problem as it pertains to school attendance and young girls..

Period poverty is a phrase used to describe the millions of women and girls worldwide who cannot afford menstrual products. In a release issued by Academic Abundance, it noted that, statistically, more than two billion women around the world have a period and while “a normal healthy part of the human body,” millions of girls and women have limited knowledge and understanding of this function nor do they have the resources to afford the sanitary products to manage their personal hygiene. Products, Mrs. Benton said, are expensive and are not considered tax exempt. Rather, in many places these products are considered luxury goods.

In the United States, 1 in 4 teens and 1 in 3 adults struggle to afford period products. And that, Mrs. Benton told the noon-day Rotarians, leads to yet another issue — school engagement and attendance.

According to the release, households who face economic challenges, and students who live with homelessness, may be forced to choose between purchasing food and other necessities and may exclude the purchase of period products, especially in households with multiple females. Students may choose to stay home from school during their period because they do not have adequate products. For those who do go to school, they may experience tremendous anxiety about having an accident or how to manage their personal hygiene.

Mrs. Benton said national statistics show that 4 out of 10 young girls miss at least two days a month due to period poverty. “It doesn’t take many months of missing two days before you are way behind,” Mrs. Benton asserted.

And for that reason, Academic Abundance is reaching out a helping hand, providing the pouches which each contain six sanitary pads, enough to provide an average of three days of products per pouch recipient.

Enter the Clinton-Sampson Rotary members who chose to help the Bentons pack the pouches as a civic project. On Monday, at Ribeyes, they cleared tables of lunch dishes and began the task of filling the pouches. Within minutes, they were all filled, packed back into banker’s boxes and handed over to Dr. Jamie King and Dr. Wesley Johnson to take back to their respective systems.

“We hope those who hand out the pouches, whether a guidance counselor, teacher or P.E. instructor, will assess these young girls and track whether they are staying in school,” Mrs. Benton said.

King and Johnson said they were appreciative of the donations, which, both noted, were very much needed among teens in their school systems. The pouches will go to both middle and high schools and be handed out to those determined to need them.

The blue pouches have the words “Clothed in Strength and Dignity” emblazoned on them, an important symbol, Mrs. Benton hopes those who get the pouches will take to heart, remembering that “life is more than just the outward symbols we put on our bodies.

“We hope those who receive these pouches will begin to realize their own self-worth. Being clothed in strength and dignity is a statement of self-worth and confidence, and these attributes are more valuable than any passing fad or short-lived trends; it’s about more than any short-term inconveniences we may face in life, but rather about the value and purpose we have in life,” Mrs. Benton said.