Help Amber Fight Menstrual Health Inequality

Support me, support reproductive and menstrual health education for all.

Welcome! Thank you for your time and for visiting my GoFundMe page.

This all feels quite unnatural having to promote myself in this way but I hope to share with you my journey best I can and explain both why I am eager to to pursue a MA Gender Analysis in International Development at the University of East Anglia, and why I need help to finance it.

My vision:

I am striving to eradicate menstrual health inequality. You might be thinking 'wow, what is that?'

Put simply, my vision is a world everyone has access to high-standard menstrual health education and hygiene solutions. I believe this can be achieved through quality, researched education programmes and humanitarian aid interventions.

I have been working towards this mission for many years and feel confident that my ambition will enable me to effect real change, but I have a few more hurdles to jump to get to this vision.

My journey so far:

I am Amber – activist, health coach, and aspiring researcher – I’ve lived in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. I am an African American New Zealander and deeply proud of my heritage. My identity has deeply informed my aspirations and is why I want to dedicate my career to giving back to those who have been affected by the inequalities in our world.

After graduating with my bachelors degree of business, I was at a loss of what I wanted to do. I ended up using my business acumen in a way I didn't anticipate and became involved in a grassroots initiative, which I later helped to incorporate into a charity, called The Rough Period . The charity supports women experiencing homelessness with safe and clean sanitary items. We were able to help countless women offering a solution to period poverty and give them some dignity back, and it was here I found my passion for reproductive justice.

Then I moved to London. I continued to prioritise self-development and education, and finding my voice with racial justice activism and ongoing civil rights work. When Covid-19 swept across the world, I started to re-evaluate what I wanted to do in this world and what impact I wanted to have, so I took a risk and applied for my masters.

Right now I am training to be a menstrual health coach and developing a holistic intersectional menstrual health coaching business to provide health coaching and education for folx who bleed.

What is next?:

The short answer: I want do more.

The long answer: I have been offered placements at two great universities in the United Kingdom, SOAS University in London and the University of East Anglia in Norwich, to pursue a Masters in Development Studies specialising in gender. They are both wonderful and have great merit.

After long deliberation and following some recent political events, I have opted to go to the University of East Anglia. UEA recently ranked in the Top 10 universities in the world for development studies in 2021!!

The UEA Masters Degree tuition is £17,600!!

I am looking to raise around £5,000 on GoFundMe.

I was lucky enough to be awarded the International Excellence Scholarship from UEA, a scholarship of £4,000, which has been most helpful in reducing the fees, but I still have a long way to go!

Why I need your help:

I have to pay international student fees, which are exceptionally high.
I had saved a huge chunk of my fees, however in December 2020 I lost my job and I ended up stuck in the UK with no employment and no income as second wave of Covid-19 hit Europe. I had to spend my tuition money to live while I was waiting to get home to New Zealand, after nearly 4 months, I finally made it home.
I have spent the last year searching and applying for scholarships. As a non-UK national there are very few awards that I can apply for; I have reached out to all the funding bodies I can, and am still waiting to hear back from some. I'm ineligible for postgraduate student loans in the UK.
I have self-supported and paid my way through university to present day. This is actually part of the reason I am so dedicated to helping my community, as I know how hard it is for women to thrive in society when the odds are stacked against them.

As a black woman, education has been my own personal resistance, and I am very proud of my achievements this far.

I am deeply invested in reproductive health education and human rights, specifically for underrepresented groups who continue to have their human rights violated across the world; from inequities in menstrual hygiene management, to the right to safe pregnancy and birthing education, to freedom from sexual violence. I believe we can only truly achieve equality in this area with strong leadership, research, and education.

With this masters degree, I plan to move on to my PhD in Medical Anthropology; I plan to work with communities and governments to formulate better education programmes across the world, using both my research and my menstrual health coaching programme.

I hope you’ll be able to join me and be a part of this vision by donating. And if you can’t, I totally understand and thank you for your emotional support by reading my story.

You can follow my journey on Instagram, and keep an eye out for my coaching business launching November 2021.

Many thanks,

Amber.