During the UK’s first national COVID-19 lockdown — which started on March 23, 2020, and ran for about three months — many people dealing with a world of virtual quizzes and daily jogs decided to take up a hobby to stave off boredom.

Whether that meant power walking or picking up a sourdough starter, there was a flurry of activity. But for 20-year-old Ella Lambert, from Chelmsford in Essex, the extra time on her hands led her to help refugee women living in camps in Greece and Lebanon.

She borrowed a sewing machine, learned how to sew, and launched a sanitary pad distribution charity in March — which has now helped fight period poverty by providing over 600 refugees with essential products.

Lambert, a student at the University of Bristol, told the BBC that she suffers from awful period pains. Her experience motivated her to think about what other people around the world were going through with their periods.

“In March I had terrible period pain, I was being sick, it was awful, and it made me think, I know I'm not the only person going through this,” she said.

"The people I want to help in these camps, they're experiencing period pain and having to use random tissue paper, cardboard, socks, scraps of material, and even leaves — whatever they can get hold of," she continued.

So Lambert put a call out on Facebook for materials to make her own sanitary pads. She launched her charity in March, and by August it was ready to distribute Pacha Pads — reusable cloth sanitary pads that can be washed and used for about five years.

Nearly 2,500 pads sewn by 150 volunteers have now been sent to camps in Greece and Lebanon, she said, with four given to each woman at a time.

The organisation’s website explains that the Pachamama Project — named after the Inca goddess of fertility for Indigenous people in South America — is now building a network of volunteers to help sew, collect, and distribute the sustainable pads. “Our pads are easy to make and will, we hope, make a huge difference to people already facing unimaginable daily challenges,” the website says.

Read the full article about period poverty by Helen Lock at Global Citizen.