Serviceplan builds period care into Colombia’s school uniforms

In Colombia, school uniforms have long served as an equaliser. Standardised clothing eliminates visible markers of wealth, ensuring that every student walks through the school gates on the same footing. Socks, shoes, shirts and gym kits are all specified on procurement lists handed to parents at the start of each year, with vendors and distribution channels already embedded in the system. What those lists have never included is anything relating to menstruation – despite the fact that one in four Colombian girls regularly misses school during her period due to stigma, shame or lack of access to products. The Period Uniform, developed by Colombian B Corp Somos Martina and Serviceplan Innovation, addresses this gap with disarming simplicity: add period underwear to the existing uniform checklist. Schools, not individual girls, initiate the conversation with parents. Procurement runs through the same vendors who already supply everything else. No new logistics, no separate programmes and no additional infrastructure. Period protection becomes standard issue, as unremarkable as a pair of socks. “Uniforms are meant to create equality in the classroom,” explains Juliana Villegas, CEO of Somos Martina. “But for decades, they’ve excluded something half the students need every month. It’s time to change that.” The initiative launched with a pilot at the public school Institución Educativa Mayor de Mosquera and has drawn support from Colombia’s Vice Minister of Education, who has voiced encouragement for broader conversations around menstrual health in schools from pre-school through to secondary level.