Student who sews sanitary pads for refugees now leads 1,000 volunteers

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. University of Bristol student Ella Lambert, 21, learned to stitch using YouTube videos during the first national lockdown, and has since launched the Pachamama Project, which aims to end period poverty. “I’ve always really struggled with period pain, like absolutely atrocious period pain which would mean that I’d have to miss out on school and cancel plans last minute,” she said. “This seemed like a really easy way of combatting period poverty and making sure that people didn’t have to deal with that because they had the products they needed that would last.” She said the project “went from zero to 100” this year after initially making the pads with Miss Geisler and her mother. “You know, letters saying how much the products helped them.” Miss Lambert said she hopes to get schoolchildren involved in making the pads and bring conversations about period poverty to their kitchen tables – and help end the stigma.