Amsterdam, Netherlands — Every graduation season in the Netherlands, backpacks hanging from flagpoles celebrate a major milestone: students finishing school. This year, that familiar symbol carried a different message.
Hung from flagpoles across Amsterdam, during graduation season, the backpacks displayed facts about the impact of period poverty on Dutch students, turning a graduation symbol into a powerful call for awareness and action.
Backpacks For Change transforms graduation backpacks into a powerful awareness campaign highlighting the reality of period poverty among Dutch students. Created for Neighborhood Feminists, an Amsterdam-based nonprofit tackling period poverty, in partnership with Yoni, a chemical-free period products brand.
The campaign brings attention to a problem affecting thousands of students across the Netherlands:
“Backpacks For Change takes one of the Netherlands’ most unique traditions and repurposes it for a good cause linked to education and opportunity. Every year across Amsterdam, backpacks hanging from flagpoles signify an achievement: graduation. Printing these backpacks with facts about period poverty and insights from our research transforms this symbol of success into a compelling call for awareness and action.”
— Tammy Sheldon, Founder, Neighborhood Feminists
53.000 Dutch students missed school due to period poverty.
1 in 5 students had to replace pads with toilet paper.
20% of students feel shame trying to get pads.
Schools should provide free period products
Menstrual education should start in elementary school.
Inability to afford pads affects student grades.
Tampons or essentials? No student should have to choose
The campaign was created by WINK and brought to life through a launch film directed by Sabrina Nijenhuis, and produced by Future Frank.
