Anyone who suddenly gets their period during a lecture and does not have a tampon or pad with them, no longer needs to sprint home. From now on, the university offers free menstrual products.

According to the University Student Council there is a high demand for free tampons and pads among students at Radboud University. ‘Research carried out by the Poverty Fund shows that 10 percent of people on their period sometimes has no money for sanitary pads’, says Isabelle Kik of the University Student Council. ‘Because of this, they stay at home: that is not supposed to happen.’

At the initiative of the University Student Council (USR), Radboud University has started a pilot with free menstrual products. The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, TU Delft and Utrecht University preceded.

Available to everyone

During the pilot, which will run until the end of 2022, the menstrual products will be available at five different locations, including the University Library and the Maria Montessori building. They are available via the School Supply machines – they were available there before but are now free. Furthermore, you can find cabinets filled with tampons and pads in the Lecture Hall Complex.

According to Kik, it is a conscious choice to make the menstrual products available in machines, and not at, for example, an info desk. ‘This way we make it as accessible as possible’, she says. The same machines also contain notepads and stationery.

Who is the initiative meant for? Kik: ‘Basically it is meant for anyone who can not afford sanitary products. But if you grab a tampon because you have forgotten yours, that is also totally fine.’ The products can not only be found in the women’s bathroom by the way, but also in some men’s bathrooms. ‘It needs to be available to anyone who needs it. That could, for example, also be transmen’, says Kik.

A grant from the Radboud Student Fund is used to make the products available free of charge.