A Cwmbran woman who lives in the Middle East has set up a project to help refugees with period poverty

A career as a professional musician in the armed forces took Cwmbran’s Alison Skipper around the world. The former Fairwater High School pupil performed for the public and royalty from 2007-2016 when she left the service and settled in Jordan with her husband.

She said: “Here in Amman we see refugees from Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Iraq. There are many organisations that assist with providing food vouchers, clothing, trauma relief and emergency care but who is helping with periods? “

Alison set up Cariad Project JO and said: “It’s a project run by passion, a passion for providing the very basics to those who need them.”

This project provides period and hygiene kits to women who desperately need them.

“The women we are aiming to help are constantly putting the needs of their children and husbands before their own. Buying nappies and food is judged to be a higher priority than buying period pads for themselves. I spent a week speaking with refugee women from surrounding countries and the period stories I heard shook me.”

“There were women using nappies, women covering their already full pads with layers of toilet roll and the vast majority of women using rags! One woman said she would only buy period pads for special occasions like a family wedding.

“By the end of the week my heart was broken and my chest was heavy with a desperate sadness, I had never given my period a second thought. I didn’t know what to do and it was only after speaking to the inspirational Amy Peake (founder of Loving Humanity) one afternoon that I decided I had to do something. And so The Cariad Project JO was born.”

“I started contacting all the well known period product names and got knocked back by nearly all of them, but in amongst the rejection there was a shining light in the form of a reusable pad company called Topsy Daisy based in Portugal. Topsy Daisy were so supportive during our first call and offered to supply the project with some of their reuseable pads. 

” A huge barrier in the Middle East is period taboo. No one wants to willingly talk about something that happens to half of the world. By providing educational sessions during distribution days I hope to slowly tackle this taboo and change attitudes.

“My focus for the project is to provide period and hygiene kits and provide educational sessions to address and slowly bust period taboo. I want to highlight the damage of disposable period products and promote reusable pads.”

Support the Cariad Project JO

You can donate via the project’s JustGiving page. Click here to donate.

You can also Like the project’s Facebook page and follow them on Instagram.

The 29-year-old’s family still live in Henllys. She said: “We married in North Devon (I was a Williams until then) and spent some time in Teddington and Wiltshire before being sent out here. We will be here for a few years. When we return to the UK I hope to settle as near to home as possible as I miss Welsh life and my family.”

Cariad Project JO is working with the Collateral Repair Project who are helping to distribute the kits.