Gigi Ermoyenous Ambassador for our Positive Periods Project

Gigi Ermoyenous explains her motivation for becoming an ambassador for the Steve Sinnott Foundation, and why our Positive Periods Project is so important to her.


Gigi Ermoyenous: I'm in the final year of sixth form and preparing to take my A-levels. I'm also an ambassador for The Steve Sinnott Foundation’s Positive Periods Project, as well as for the charity Period Power.


The challenges caused by menstruation, and the unfairness of period poverty, are two things that for as long as I can remember I have cared about. In 2017 I worked with my school to set up dignity boxes in toilets. I believe that period products are needed just as much as toilet paper, and as one is provided for free, the other should be too.


Environmental impact


My other passion when discussing periods is the benefit of reusable products. People need to be aware of the massive amount of plastic and chemical usage in period products. 90% of pads are plastic, that’s the equivalent of about four carrier bags per product. Not only is this harmful to the environment but also potentially to bodies too, alongside fragrances, beaches, gelling agents, and are causing environmental and health problems.


The most common menstrual products are veritable cornucopia of plastic. Tampons come wrapped in plastic, some encased in plastic applicators, with plastic strings, and most surprisingly include plastic in the body of the tampon. Pads generally incorporate even more plastic, from the leak proof base, the synthetics to absorb fluid, to the packaging, then there are the chemical absorbers, fillers and lubricants, plus chemical and pesticide residues from the manufacturing process.


This is why I campaign to raise awareness of reusable sanitary products. They are a cheaper and more eco-friendly choice.


Helping girls stay in school


A couple of years ago I met The Steve Sinnott Foundation at an NEU (National Education Union) meeting where I learnt about their Positive Periods Project.


I feel honoured and proud to have been invited to work with The Steve Sinnott Foundation. Their Positive Period Project aims to teach communities how to make reusable period packs. We support women in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Malawi, Haiti and Cuba who struggle to afford period products. This causes them to suffer social stigma, and their education to stop. The Positive Periods Project teaches women and pupils in schools, to make their own reusable period pads from fabric and resources that they can source locally.


Positive Periods is creating independent women who manage their periods with dignity and pride. Girls miss approximately 52 days of education a year due to a lack of period products, and facilities to dispose of them properly. Once girls start to miss school, they often do not return.


Our project is proven to increase and prolong school attendance for girls, and benefits the local economy as the materials are sourced locally. Reusable pads are fairly easy to make and can stay in good condition for years. I've had a go at making some for myself, my family and friends, and intend to introduce the project in my school’s twin college, Asiky College in Namatumba Uganda.


A while ago pupils from my school carried out some research about periods and Asiky College. The results showed that most girls worried about getting their period while at school, and have missed school days because of their periods. An overwhelming number of pupils use items such as rags, newspapers, feathers, or over used disposable sanitary products. This of course can cause many different types of health problems.


The point of the Positive Periods Project is to ensure that girls around the world no longer have to experience this discomfort and indignity linked to their periods. Something that is natural and unavoidable for most women, and should be treated as such.


Thank you for the support


We are especially grateful to everyone who supported this work so far including the NEU and The Open Work Foundation for all their support with this project.


This project speaks to me of something empowering and inspiring. I wish to work with The Steve Sinnott Foundation in the next couple of years to gain first-hand experience. For now however, I will do everything I can to keep this project running, because we all struggled through the Covid pandemic.


I implore you all to donate what you can to support the Positive Periods Project. If you would like to find out what you can do to support the Positive Periods Project, please get in touch with Ann at ann.beatty@stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk or you can support now with our Gift Of Giving for Positive Periods.






Find out more about the our Positive Periods Project here.


Gigi Ermoyenous • February 16, 2022

36 Bicycles. Countless Futures in The Gambia.

By Ann Beatty • May 20, 2026
How a simple act of practical solidarity is transforming the journey to school in The Gambia’s Central River Region North Policies have been written. Schools have been built. Yet for many children in The Gambia’s Central River Region North, access to education is still measured in kilometres, not opportunity. 

Education for Hope in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous Times

By Laura Griffin • May 13, 2026
‘In a single hour vast tracts of shaded woodland became a jumble of torn trees and upturned soil, exposed to the glare of the summer sun. Such land-clearing events are rare, but forests exhibit remarkable resilience in the face of disaster. I’m told that the Chinese character for ‘catastrophe’ is the same as that which represents the word ‘opportunity’. And, the blowdown, while catastrophic, presented opportunities for many species.’ (Wall Kimmerer, 2003: 89). In the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (Stein, 2021) what kinds of education for hope might support children’s and young people’s critical engagement in local and global issues? In the spirit of exploring the possibilities of hope further, this short article focuses on the area of global citizenship and sustainabilityrelated education. It will briefly open by sharing commonalities across pedagogical approaches that take up the concept and act of hope more critically, and close by offering reflective questions for educators, with suggestions for further reading. Perhaps it is a kind of hope that is grounded in the present, in future reimagining(s), in ethical solidarity, and an acknowledgement of our deep entanglement with the living metabolism of planet earth 1 our singular home (UNESCO, 2021); a hope that engages with complex root causes and lived realities of multiple overlapping crises in critically reflexive and contextually relevant ways. As McCloskey notes, ‘Hope can fire our collective imagination and critical consciousness as a mainspring to activism and intervention in the world.’ (2025: 3). Commonalities across critical pedagogical approaches to hope include: Acknowledging the context of a ‘seamless single story of progress, development and human evolution’ (Andreotti, V.D.O., 2021b Relating to social and ecological justice and the wellbeing of people and planet Using participatory, action-orientated and inquiry-based learning processes Exploring diverse worldviews and perspectives Practising grounding in the present with opening up possibilities for change (relational, embodied, response-able 2 ) Experiencing ‘struggle’ in different forms (dialogical, selfreflexive, open-ended) Engaging individual and collective agency, action and activism Looking for lifelong and life-wide learning and unlearning. 1 See ‘Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness’, in Machado de Oliveira Andreotti. 2021a 2 See ‘Crossing Borders’ in 2 Depth Education “Depth Education and the Possibility of GCE Otherwise, 2021b. Source: Andreotti, V. 2021a & 2021b., Atif, A. (2025)., Bourn, D. 2021., Bryan. A. and Mochizuki,Y., 2024., Giroux, H.A. 2025., Meade, E. 2025. Whilst engaging in the concept and act of hope more critically reflect upon: What kinds of education for hope might you explore further and why? How might you provide generative spaces for engaging in diverse worldviews and perspectives? In what ways can you facilitate individual and collective agency? How might you support learners’ practice grounding in the present in order to relate differently? In what ways can you support learners in navigating complex root causes and lived realities of local and global issues? As Chief Ninawa Hini Kui affirms, ‘The future depends much less on the images we project ahead than on our capacity to repair relations and build relationships differently in the present.’ (Andreotti et al, 2023: 73. An invitation for further reading: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future . d’Abreu, C., Belgeonne, C., Bourn, D. and Hatley, J. (2025) ‘Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future’. DERC Research Paper 24. London: UCL Institute of Education. Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2021a) ‘Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism’ , London: Penguin Random House. Development Education and Hope . McCloskey, S. (2025). (ed) ‘Development Education and Hope’. ‘Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review’ , Vol. 41, Autumn. Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Link to and download the full reference list here

I heard it said today by a friend that “You learn a language best when you use it to speak and write about things that are important to you. ”

By Susan Piper • May 6, 2026
This summed up to me about why I volunteer for the Hands Up Project. HUP is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine. By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, it enables the use of creativity and selfexpression to promote mutual understanding, personal growth, and the development of English language skills. I joined HUP in 2020 during COVID. After going to Palestine in 2017, I wanted to get more involved in working with Palestinian children in schools. HUP gave me the opportunity to link up with schools in the West Bank and Gaza. Every week I’d tell them stories from all over the world, then we’d discuss it, play games and I’d get them to retell it. Sometimes we would work from their coursebook English for Palestine’ in mutual team teaching sessions with their teacher. The simple act of telling a story became much more than entertainment. It became connection, healing, and a bridge to the world beyond their immediate reality to help them improve their language skills, and to give them a platform to speak about their lives in a language that connects them to people everywhere. I loved it, every week, seeing their smiling faces on the screen and building long lasting friendships with their teachers. I even went to Gaza in 2023 and met some of the kids I’d only seen on Zoom. It was a beautiful experience and something I will never forget. As hostilities escalated, I lost contact with everyone. I thought about where the kids were and what had happened to them. As I watched schools being bombed, universities flattened, and people killed in their thousands, I thought about where the kids I’d met were and what was happening to them. I kept in contact with many of the teachers I knew and heard daily news of displacement, destruction, hunger and bombing. Recently, I’ve started to link up again with children in Gaza, and it feels wonderful to be back helping them learn after being denied an education for over two years. Connecting with children in Palestine is more than just words. When a child in Palestine confidently tells their story to someone on the other side of the world, bridges are built, empathy grows, and the world gains a fuller picture of childhood in contexts far from peace and privilege. My work with these children is rooted in the belief that education and voice are inseparable. Through storytelling and English language learning, I witness children not just learning new vocabulary, but reclaiming their narratives, believing in their potential, and finding human connection in a world they perceive has abandoned them. And more than anything, this work reminds us all that children — everywhere — deserve to learn, to speak, and to be heard. Links to HUP information, books and resources: The Hands Up Project BY SUSAN PIPER Susan Piper is currently an ESOL teacher in Oldham, Greater Manchester and has worked in education for over 30 years. She is also a volunteer for the Hands Up Project and is the International Solidarity Officer and President of her NEU district. She believes in quality education for all and aims to make her lessons creative and inclusive so that effective language learning can take place.