Molly Secor-Turner has spent the majority of her life serving others. The North Dakota State associate professor started service as a teenage girl, looking to make a difference. Her mother introduced her to mission work in hospitals and schools in Kenya, Africa and the rest is history.

When Secor-Turner returned to Kenya in 2012, she asked what were some of the greatest challenges students faced. Her research found that girls couldn’t always go to school when they had their period.

In 2013, Secor-Turner and five of her friends founded the non-profit For the Good Period. For the Good Period works to educate girls on menstruation and provide washable reusable pads.

Their greatest fundraising event, Pints and Pads will take place again sometime in March at the Fargo Brewery.

The first year they distributed close to 3,000 pads and 1,000 pairs of underwear. In doing so, For the Good Period was able to inform girls on the importance of safe sex, HIV prevention and staying in school.

“There is no simple solution,” Secor-Turner said. Trying to minimize displa

cement of local pad suppliers takes time. “It’s a complex place and space to work in,” Secor-Turner said. Though the results are not immediate, Secor-Turner finds it incredibly rewarding.

Going out and saying, “Hey! Women have periods. We should talk about periods,” is not effective.

But talking about pads is a great way to talk about women in a respectful way. In this way we can say, “the lives of women and their reproductive health and they way their bodies work isn’t shameful. It’s part of life,” Secor-Turner said. “Talking about the worth and value of girls is a really awesome part that is related to pads.

“When we don’t talk about periods and women, we marginalize women because we don’t talk about a significant part of their life”.