Student leads effort to end period poverty on campus

UTRGV biology senior Kylie Torres co-launched the End Period Poverty Campaign a year and a half ago on the Brownsville and Edinburg campuses after noticing a lack of menstrual resources available to students.

Torres said what inspired her to start the campaign was her personal journey with combined oral contraceptives at a young age and to make menstrual items available for others. 

“It caused my estrogen to go up,” she said. “So, I bled for a year and a half and I realized that I have the resources and, when I looked in the bathrooms at UTRGV, there were no resources for that.”

 Torres said she believes there should be a menstrual budget at the university. 

“There’s a 19 to 12 female-to-male ratio at UTRGV and UTRGV ‘maintains student life’ and part of student life is menses,” she said. 

Sofia Reyes, a psychology freshman, said having the receptacles in the bathroom is “helpful and for a good cause.” 

“Especially for women that aren’t able to have these products at home or just on a daily basis … they’re able to just go to the bathroom and get something real quick,” Reyes said.  

Torres said she does most of the fundraising and events to bring awareness. 

Milena Melo Tijerina, co-investigator for the Maternal Health Research Center and anthropology professor, said she budgeted $3,000 from a larger grant for the organization. 

“So, I messaged [the Intersectional Feminist Student Organization] about them possibly being able to hand out flyers about my research study and, then, I was going to donate materials to them in return,” Melo Tijerina said. 

Torres said the money was helpful and used for menstrual products because before she was fundraising “a lot.”

Melo Tijerina added the campaign is “helpful and important.” 

“[Not having menstrual items], it’s something that can be stressful,” she said. “ So, the idea that there’s somewhere in every bathroom on campus that students can just go to is a really great idea and plan.” 

Matthew Moncus, director for Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management, said he was the “mediator” between IFSO, the Dean of Students and Facilities to continue with the project after a “misunderstood prohibition” from a previous director in the department. 

Torres said the first distribution for Edinburg was “confiscated” and had to go with higher-up administration even with previous approval. 

Moncus said this was an issue because the custodial staff has orders to remove “anything extra” in the bathrooms. 

“So, we had to go through a period of training and communication to make sure that they knew that this was an approved project, and that they should leave those alone,” he said. 

Moncus said the organization wanted the menstrual items in every bathroom but, after a discussion, decided to focus on buildings with more traffic of students for “oversight and ease of restocking.” 

“The students didn’t have the resources to go to all of the restrooms every single day to make sure that there were enough products there,” he said. “I had proposed the family restrooms. … Ultimately though, I believe they are just in the women’s restrooms, now, and I think it came down to resources available.” 

Torres said Brownsville receptacles have not had any confiscation issues and in Edinburg; “we just direct people towards buildings that have them.” 

Daniela Real, an early bilingual education junior, said UTRGV should “try to put their part in it.” 

“If it is much of a health risk … I mean, maybe, UTRGV themselves should be the one to … have the little dispenser thing,” Real said. 

Moncus said the organization mentioned the campaign should be fully funded by the university. 

“We were looking at what it would take to do that; it just really wasn’t feasible,” he said. “One of the things that was proposed was to organize it through the food bank. … The student organization didn’t really like that idea because they were really set on getting [receptacles] to the restrooms.” 

The Rider asked Moncus if the campaign could be included in the campus health budget for the future. 

“I believe with the right leadership in the student health, I think it could be possible,” he replied. 

As vice president of IFSO, Torres is the Brownsville campus coordinator for the receptacles. 

“I do solely Brownsville,” she said. “I do get some volunteers which is good but we’ve been trying to spread the word through Engagement Zone, so we can … track people’s hours.”

Students can sign up to be volunteers in the Engagement Zone need named Menstrual Item Distribution, depending on the campus. 

For more information about donating, contact @ifso.utrgv on Instagram or Torres at (956) 498-9248.

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