Lindsay Adams recognised for work tackling period poverty

Lindsay Adams has been recognised for her work fighting period poverty, winning the Women at Heart Community Champion award before being named Heart FM Women of the Year 2026.

Adams, from Westridge, founder and CEO of #AgainstPeriodPoverty, said the recognition was about the girls and women reached through the organisation’s work.

“For me, these awards are so much bigger than my name. They represent every girl and woman we have reached through #AgainstPeriodPoverty – every school, every community, every conversation and every life touched,” she said.

How #AgainstPeriodPoverty began

Adams started #AgainstPeriodPoverty in 2019 after noticing two girls regularly missing school. When she asked them why, they told her they could not afford sanitary pads. The experience prompted her to begin visiting schools, speaking to girls about menstruation and providing sanitary products.

In 2023, Adams’s visited Mitchells Plain School of Skills, where she spoke to girls about understanding their bodies, caring for themselves and being confident enough to ask for help (“Westridge designer wages war against period poverty” Plainsman August 23).

The organisation later launched its first sanitary towel vending machine at Rocklands Primary School in 2025, giving girls access to free sanitary products at school.

Adams described the initiative as more than installing a machine, saying it was about “instilling hope” (“Rocklands Primary School takes a stand against period poverty with new vending machine,” Plainsman, August 15 2025).

Continuing the work

Her organisation has continued to support schools, most recently partnering with Portland High School after Grade 11 pupil Keyshia Cyster raised concerns about period poverty. #AgainstPeriodPoverty donated sanitary products to the school following Cyster’s initiative (“Portland High pupil turns period-poverty concern into sanitary-pad drive” Plainsman September 1).

Adams said she thought about the communities reached through the organisation when her name was announced, including Ladismith, Zoar, Malmesbury, Caledon, Riebeek Kasteel and Barrydale.

“I thought about their stories, their smiles and the difference something as simple as dignity and access can make,” she said.

Adams said the organisation had reached 165 schools, describing them as “165 more reasons to keep going”.

She thanked Heart FM and those who nominated her, saying she was “overwhelmed, humbled and incredibly grateful” for the recognition.

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