
A rising senior at Maggie Lena Walker Governor’s School in Richmond, Virginia, Pooja has been dedicated to fighting period poverty and the stigma around menstruation and gender-specific health issues ever since 2019, when she was first introduced to the issue of period poverty at a women’s rights conference. In this spirit, Pooja co-founded and currently serves as President of her school’s chapter of the national organization PERIOD, through which she has been able to run several period product drives, fundraisers, and advocacy campaigns to support Sylvia’s Sisters’s mission. Pooja is also part of the 2021–22 Pad Project Ambassador cohort and plans to major in Public Health/Global Health in college to continue her fight against period poverty and stigma into and beyond her undergraduate education—or at least as long as it takes to achieve her grand vision of global menstrual equity. She is beyond grateful for the opportunity to work with Sylvia’s Sisters towards this goal.