At just 22 years of age, Isobel Marshall has been named The 2021 Young Australian of the Year for her work in addressing period poverty.
The idea to create a social enterprise first came to Isobel and her classmate, Eloise Hall, when they were in their final year of high school.
After attending a leadership conference at Bond University, they were inspired to forge ahead with ‘TABOO’, a business dedicated to bridging women’s lack of access to sanitary products in developing countries.
“About 30 percent of girls in developing countries drop out of school as soon as they get their period,” Isobel told The Feed.
“We thought this is an incredible opportunity to tap into the market of menstrual hygiene products and offer our own organic sanitary products and then donate our net profits to fight period poverty,” she said.
In 2018, Isobel and Eloise travelled to India and Kenya to learn more about the barriers confronting women in rural communities.
“We were able to reach quite a number of rural Kenyan schoolgirls and that was by directly handing out pads and educating them about menstrual healthcare,” Isobel said.
“That was an incredible experience and it showed us that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.”
Isobel said due to a lack of access to hygienic products, some of the girls had to rely on alternatives like dirty rags from around the house or even cow dung to soak up menstrual blood.
“There were all these complexities of girls walking hours to and from school and having menstrual cramps and not knowing what to do and sitting down by the side of the road in the dark, which is completely dangerous,” she added.
After raising over $56,000 through crowdfunding, TABOO launched its products at the end of 2019. 100 percent of the profits go towards providing sanitary items and knowledge to women and girls.
“We partner with a charity called One Girl that has all these amazing programs in Uganda and Sierra Leone in place to make sure that girls have access and can afford products and that they’re educated along with boys in their community,” Isobel said.
Locally, Isobel and TABOO have partnered with Vinnies Women’s Crisis centre, providing free access to pads and tampons for women who require emergency accommodation in South Australia.
TABOO has also handed out much-needed sanitary items to women and girls in remote Indigenous communities.
“Period poverty certainly exists in Australia. There are several at-risk groups, including Indigenous Australians,” Isobel said.
To combat this issue, TABOO has partnered with the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council to offer customers the chance to subscribe on behalf of the Council to receive sanitary products.
The NPY Women’s Council then distributes these products to Aboriginal women who struggle with accessing sanitary items.
Isobel has an impressively full schedule and is currently studying a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide.
While she’s uncertain about how the future will shape up, she hopes to combine her work at TABOO with a profession in women’s health.
Along with the positive change she’s made, Isobel hopes to lessen the stigma around periods.
“We want this very natural biological function that is necessary for the survival of our species to be a conversation that can be had between fathers and daughters, mothers and brothers and everyone in between,” she said.
“It’s such a natural process that should be celebrated instead of being looked upon as dirty.”
