Alexa Lahr Capstone

I started my Capstone in Junior year in Ms. Jonas’ class.  We had to make our own non-profit organization, and with the help of friends and Ms. Jonas, I decided to make it my Capstone.  My goal was to bring awareness and help the women and transmen who can’t afford feminine products. What inspired this was a video I watched last year about women on the street and how they struggle when it comes to there period.  Using different fundraisers and outreaches I was able to accomplish this goal and I am excited to go even further with this outside of Science Leadership Academy. Probably one of my favorite things we did was going to “Overington Home” for the first time.  This is a home for women who are living on the streets and who are recovering addicts. When I visited them for the first time we brought clothes and feminine products. Our hope in the visit was not just to give them something but to connect with them on a personal level.  Meeting the women was amazing and hearing how having their period and living on the streets was difficult, became the backbone of this project. If I had to say there was one outcome to my capstone, it would be my mindset and how much it has grown towards the women on the street.  I learned to really hear the women and others who are in the streets. Also I learned a lot more information about the women. I did many events throughout the year that have all grown my heart for the women and transmen on the streets. Another outcome of the project was that it brought awareness to the issue of homelessness and the need for feminine products and the conversations that came from the events were amazing.  I look forward to what this seed of a project will produce in the future.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Grigg, Viv. Companion to the Poor: Christ in the Urban Slums. Urban Leadership Foundation, 2013.

This book is about a man who went to Asia and established a church to the poor.  He tried to find ways that would treat the people’s spiritual needs separate from there poverty.  This is a true story about his time there and challenges his story is still continuing. He uses the bible as a reference on how to be with the poor.  He explains this through the text. Christianity is a big part of my life and why I live the way I do. This book is really helpful for me to hear the Christian perspective.  Also, this gives me insight on how to treat the homeless separately from there poverty-how to treat them like anyone else.

2.“Homeless People Poetry.” Purple Moon Group, LLC,

www.friendtothehomeless.org/homeless-poetry.html.

I wanted to go a different route with this link.  I wanted to see the artist point of view on homelessness.  This website is full of different art done by homeless people what I think is very beautiful and very powerful.  Showing how different art forms can really shape a situation and make you look at poverty differently. I read a few poems and was able to see the different feelings these women and men had.  The different words from these poems are really encouraging me to write my own piece for my project. On this website, they also have videos of the homeless men and women, singing videos, art pieces, and stories.  What a great way to bring awareness.

3.“How Do Homeless Women Cope With Their Periods? | NSFWomen.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABch4VYOJZ0&feature=youtu.be.

This is a video that really made me want to start this project.  I came across it last year when I was searching the internet. This video drawled my attention and gave me insight into something that I didn’t realize before.  I didn’t realize the struggle women have to get through on the streets during their periods. This video shows the struggles women have to go through day by day on the streets.  Showing the struggles of getting good hygiene, some women would use a cup to clean their lady parts. Also, they talk about examples of what they use instead of period products. Anywhere from paper towels to socks.

4. Okamoto, Nadya. “The Menstrual Movement | Nadya Okamoto | TEDxPortland.” YouTube, 21 May 2016, youtu.be/ncg2bw9s30M.

This is a TED talk by Nadya Okamoto.  She gives her background story of when she started her period and how her mom celebrated her by becoming women.  She talks about how growing up when she was poor how she struggled to get products. Growing up she kept a journal of all the different things women used for their periods including paper bags.  This really intrigued her and she was amused about the way people talked about there period. How women would whisper it like they were ashamed. So she decided to make an organization that would talk to students about your body and normalizes the word “period”.

5.“Period Poverty Can Imprison Women – and Humiliate Women Prisoners.” New Statesman, www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2018/01/period-poverty-can-imprison-women-and-humiliate-women-prisoners.

This source is an article on tampon tax.  It talks about different parts of the world that have tampon taxing.  It talks about if the government is truly keeping women safe. This is a sign that there is a problem the way the government has a control over women.  It isn’t fair to the women that condoms are freely given out but there is no way for women to get their basic needs. This article talks a lot about Scotland and the way they treat women.  This article is important because it shows that women having these problems in everywhere. It is a worldly issue that needs to be confronted.

6. Period, The Homeless. “The Homeless Period.” The Homeless Period, thehomelessperiod.com/.

This is a website that talks about an organization called “The Homeless Period”.  What this organization is about is one day having free products in homeless shelters.  They bring an up point that I use a lot in my reach for awareness around the topic. The point is that the shelters give out free condoms and are actually given the money to buy these every year.  But there is no money put forth into getting free products for women. One thing I thought was cool was that they have a video on their website that is words written on cardboard. This is a good vision because a lot of the time the homeless writes on cardboard to bring awareness that they need help.  They have a hashtag called #thehomelessperiod this makes me think about how I started a hashtag #equalflow.

7. Snyder, Howard A. Radical Renewal: The Problem of Wineskins Today. Touch Publications, 1996.

This book is about the poor and also the church and how they connect.  The chapter I read for this annotated bib was The Gospel of the Poor today.  This talked about how people in the church need to stop shutting out the poor and act as though they are less than.  It talks about how people in the church do a lot of analyzing of the poor but they don’t bring them in. This chapter continues to talk about Jesus and his actions.  I think this is important for me to read for my project because I can see the proper ways to act around the poor. The church sometimes acts bigger and better than the homeless and this is where a lot of problems come in.

8.scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1747&context=gsurc.

This is an art piece done by women interested in the different protests and pink tax.  Pink tax is going on all over there are certain products that have the color pink and they are products meant for women.  These pink products are taxed showing how certain things are just taxed for women and not men. There were many protests that came out of this including women gathering in front of the Houses of Parliament without any products on.  Their bloody underwear showed that these products were necessary. I thought this was really powerful to show that this is needed. Also, the author of this writing posted her artwork what was a mask she made out of tampons and she wore it in the shower and she let it get heavy and expand and this showed the weight the women had to go through.

9.Scaramella , Nicole. It’s a Part of Life. Period.

This is a document that talks about why menstruation is looked down upon.  It talks about the history of how women in the bible were told they were dirty for 7 days while in their period.  This was shocking to me because I never noticed this in this chapter. Although this is in the old testament a lot of stuff is contradicted in the new testament.  Then this document goes through the positives and negatives coming out of the word period. There is much weight on this topic and this is written well throughout this paper.  Especially with the new female taxing where they are going to tax feminine products.

10. TEDxTalks. “Period Poverty: Breaking The Silence | Amika George | TEDxCoventGardenWomen.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Dec. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WRuKvLMkpA.

In this TED Amika George talks about girls in other countries having to skip school for a week every month because of their periods.  She started a potion to bring free products to schools so the girls can be in school. Period poverty is a hidden problem that needs to get awareness so that these girls can go to school.  She talks about how we need to stop the silents around the topic of periods. Women are taught to keep girls there periods products from the beginning. This is even built into out commercials, for instance, naming a female produce brand “whisper” to show it needs to be silently dealt with.  The first steps to fixing period poverty are to realize it's not just a women's problem.