Amika felt inspired after reading about Freedom4Girls, a charity that usually provides menstrual products to young students living in Kenya but had to forward products to Leeds (a city in the United Kingdom) because there were girls that could not afford them. Amika founded the campaign Free Periods and gathered over 200,000 signatures on an online petition. When she was seventeen, she organized a peaceful protest in which around 2,000 people dressed up in red to demand government action. The goal of the protest was to get free menstrual products for those in the free meal programs in schools. Amika also aims to dismiss the idea that periods
are shameful.
“In a patriarchal society, periods are seen as a secret because a big percentage of the people in power aren’t faced with them every month. When I think about a world that has gender equality, it’s one where periods are openly discussed.”
—Amika George
This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.
The Blog of Awesome Women 