Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
SPECIAL PRICE: Just £9.99 for your next 8 magazines
Subscribe today
Activism

Changemakers: Amika George, founder of #FreePeriods

For George, it's time to end period poverty in Britain once and for all. Join her as she takes #FreePeriods to Westminster

This week’s Changemakers Top 100 special edition features the world’s leading thinkers, shakers and agitators. Throughout the week we’ll be highlighting just a few online.

George started the #FreePeriods movement in 2017 aged 18 after learning that her peers were skipping school because of period poverty. Success came in a 165,000-strong petition and thousands protesting outside Downing Street, sparking a domino effect countrywide.

High street giants shouldered the VAT cost, and brands like Always and Bodyform launched campaigns to tackle the crisis.

George’s next battle for 2019 has just been announced, Together with community campaigners Red Box Project, #FreePeriods will take on Westminster in a legal battle to follow in the footsteps of Scotland, where the Holyrood government has supported the Big Issue Invest-backed Hey Girls! period poverty campaign to help 18,000 women access free products.

If George’s campaign is successful, it will see Westminster working with Red Box Project to put free period products in all schools and colleges across England. A campaign to raise £10,000 in legal fees has begun.

Read the full article in this week's Big Issue.
Find your vendor
Who do you trust?
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

View all
Inside the mission to make Cumbria the first anti-racist county in the UK
Anti Racist Cumbria - three people holding hands and skipping
Racism

Inside the mission to make Cumbria the first anti-racist county in the UK

Meet the primary school children with big ideas to end homelessness in the UK
Homelessness

Meet the primary school children with big ideas to end homelessness in the UK

Kneecap rapper Mo Chara's 'terrorism' charge: Is it about free speech, Palestine or something more?
Kneecap

Kneecap rapper Mo Chara's 'terrorism' charge: Is it about free speech, Palestine or something more?

How Arsenal is empowering young disabled people through football: 'It's one of the best things you can do'
Jack at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. Image: Arsenal in the Community
Football

How Arsenal is empowering young disabled people through football: 'It's one of the best things you can do'

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Every day, Big Issue digs deeper – speaking up for those society overlooks. Will you help us keep doing this work?