November 16, 2021
Philadelphia Mother-Daughter Duo Fights Period Poverty With The Nation’s First Menstrual Hub
Lynette Medley and her daughter, Nya McGlone have made history by creating the first crowdfunded menstrual hub aimed at combatting period poverty.
Their initiative started three years ago when Medley, 51, and McGlone, 29 started delivering free menstrual products door-to-door in Philadelphia during the evening hours, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Now after years of word-of-mouth support and running the business from the trunk of a car, the mother-daughter duo is set to open what is believed to be the country’s first menstrual hub, The SPOT Period in Germantown.
The ladies have been using their non-profit No More Secrets: Mind Body Spirit, Inc. to help with their mission of fighting period poverty. Run out of Medley’s therapy office and car, the community started to take notice and soon a whole movement was born.
“People started to ask us to take pictures with them for Instagram,” Medley said. “Now it’s like ‘The Pad Ladies are here! Here they come!’”
The SPOT (an acronym that stands for Safety Programming for Optimal Transformation) was funded entirely by donations sent through a GoFundMe campaign.
The new hub offers a safe and welcoming space that provides an array of services for women including free menstrual and hygiene products, seminars and educational resources, access to clean water and toilets, a computer room, and kits for those experiencing a period for the first time. There’s also a Breonna Taylor safe room for “marginalized women to escape the dangers of the world.”
“I think the difference in our approach is that we provide dignity to our communities. We do not give them pity because in my mind we should not have to do this work,” Medley said with tears welling in her eyes.
“I cry because I can’t believe this is something they have to ask for, to beg for — a pad or a tampon.”