A CAMPAIGN to end ‘period poverty’ in school age girls is booming thanks to the Andover community.

Since the Red Box Project was featured in the Advertiser in September, organisers have been stunned by the amount of support.

The scheme has an aim to ensure no girls miss school through a lack of access to sanitary products.

Campaigner Niki Spencer now has boxes in all secondary schools, the majority of primary schools and youth clubs in Andover and the surrounding area.

But Niki said from visiting more schools, she has seen the stark reality that teachers and staff are facing and why the scheme is much needed.

She added: “It is lovely to be able to support them in this way. The feedback I am getting from the schools is that they really need this as they are buying them out of their own funds which are stretched beyond belief.

“They are at breaking point at the moment and are struggling with normal school supplies and having to then provide money for sanitary products. This is something we take away from them and they can just concentrate on teaching.”

The campaigner says that she would not have been able to meet the needs of the pupils if they had not been given so many vital donations.

Mother-of-five Niki said: “Since the appeal in the newspaper I’ve had people email me, get in contact with me, just to give donations and I’ve had money through the project’s JustGiving page.

“People have been saying that they are donating because we are supporting a school near them or their children go to a school.”

Local businesses have also got involved with some, including the Travelling Cupcake, Lucy’s Kitchen and Recruit to Care, along with a number of offices offering a place for staff to donate items to the project.

The project has received help from community groups such as the Wellington Centre, All Saints Church Upper Clatford and Girl Guides.

Niki added: “It has just gone mad, I am really proud. It just reaffirms that people in the community are lovely when they know about things. There are some really good people around me.”

Niki’s ambition has not stopped as the mums are looking to get a storage unit to house the mountain of products currently in Niki’s living room before trying to make the project a household name in the town.

“I want it to become so people go to the shop to buy sanitary products from themselves or their daughters they can pick up an extra pack and donate it.”

Currently, the project aims to get to a school within 48 hours of it calling to say their box is running low or empty and it needs to be refilled.