RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo an­nounced the es­tab­lish­ment of a $5 mil­lion Women’s Fund to end pe­ri­od pover­ty, stake­hold­ers said it was a gi­ant leap for the ad­vance­ment and pro­tec­tion of women.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Meena Jadoo­nanan, from A Touch of Joy Foun­da­tion, said the ini­tia­tive aligns with her or­gan­i­sa­tion’s on­go­ing work.

“This is not just a pol­i­cy, it’s a step to­wards equal­i­ty, dig­ni­ty, and em­pow­er­ment for girls and young women. Over the past five years, we have dis­trib­uted close to 10,000 packs of fem­i­nine nap­kins, en­sur­ing no one miss­es school or work be­cause of their pe­ri­od. We stand ready to sup­port and strength­en this na­tion­al ef­fort,” Jadoo­nanan said.

Mean­while, Dr Nadria Ram­bo­cas, of Crown Her TT, high­light­ed the need for over­sight and wider ac­cess.

“This is a huge suc­cess for us. We have been ad­vo­cat­ing for at least one free men­stru­al prod­uct in schools and work­places, and the gov­ern­ment has an­swered,” she said.

She added that in time, she hoped the pro­gramme could be ex­pand­ed.

“We hope every woman in Trinidad and To­ba­go can ac­cess free prod­ucts, es­pe­cial­ly those on so­cial sup­port and with heavy pe­ri­ods from con­di­tions like en­dometrio­sis or PCOS,” she added.

Ram­bo­cas said pe­ri­od pover­ty has long af­fect­ed school at­ten­dance and work­force par­tic­i­pa­tion. She said NGOs and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions have played a cen­tral role in dis­trib­ut­ing prod­ucts and pro­vid­ing ed­u­ca­tion, not­ing the Gov­ern­ment should work close­ly with these or­gan­i­sa­tions to en­sure the fund reach­es those who need it most.

Dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion, Tan­coo said that un­der the fund, the Gov­ern­ment will pro­vide free men­stru­al prod­ucts and ed­u­ca­tion in schools across T&T. The fund will al­so sup­port pro­grammes aimed at re­duc­ing stig­ma and is set to be­gin in Jan­u­ary 2026.

Tan­coo said the fund aims to ad­dress the chal­lenges that pre­vent women and girls from ac­cess­ing men­stru­al hy­giene prod­ucts.

“Pe­ri­od Pover­ty con­tin­ues to un­der­mine the health and ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties of many women and girls. Women and girls im­pact­ed by Pe­ri­od Pover­ty strug­gle to af­ford men­stru­al hy­giene prod­ucts. To this end, I pro­pose the fol­low­ing strate­gic in­ter­ven­tions,” Tan­coo said.

The fund, he said, will launch a pi­lot pro­gramme to dis­trib­ute free men­stru­al kits in schools and pro­vide ed­u­ca­tion on men­stru­al health to stu­dents, teach­ers, and com­mu­ni­ty groups, in­clud­ing men and boys. Tax in­cen­tives will en­cour­age pri­vate con­tri­bu­tions to the fund.

He not­ed that the ini­tia­tive al­so in­cludes ed­u­ca­tion for men and boys to re­duce stig­ma around men­stru­a­tion. Tan­coo said the fund is part of a broad­er strat­e­gy to sup­port women and girls, link­ing ac­cess to men­stru­al prod­ucts with wider goals of health, equal­i­ty, and so­cial de­vel­op­ment.