After 20 years as a teacher and school principal, Jan Tinetti knows the damage period poverty can do to young girls and women seeking to build a better life. Children as young as six would miss a week of school each month due to a lack of products to support their monthly cycle. When she became Minister for Women in the New Zealand Parliament, Jan partnered with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in launching an Access to Period Products pilot program in 2020 to provide free products to schools.
In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, The Hon. Jan Tinetti speaks with host Lynne Golodner about the 2021 nationwide rollout of an effort to provide free period products to all New Zealand schools. This joins other efforts to eliminate child poverty, including a universal healthy lunch program, free breakfasts, milk and fresh fruit in schools, social workers, and more. “We want to focus on making New Zealand the best country in the world to be a child,” she says in the episode.
In this episode, Lynne and the Hon. Jan Tinetti discuss:
- New Zealand’s Well-Being Budget
- Why being a teacher and principal is the “best job” Tinetti has ever had
- The impact of a nearly 50% female Parliament on legislation benefiting children and families
- New Zealand’s remarkable COVID-19 response
- Being part of a “5 million person team”
- Government driven by empathy
- The need to put people at the center of government efforts
- Writing a mission statement for yourself
Links and Resources:
Coming up next on the Make Meaning Podcast:
Lynne speaks with her husband, Dan Golodner, and her best friend and client, Alisa Peskin-Shepherd, about the pandemic’s effect on relationships.
If you enjoyed this episode, you’ll like these other Make Meaning podcast episodes!
- Episode 98, Kehkashan Basu, How to make the world more sustainable
- Episode 97, Eric Hale – How to give every child a chance
- Episode 88, David Hornak – How to change the school year so kids retain what they learn
- Episode 84, Andrew Meloche – How to make every student in a high school feel special & noticed
- Episode 57, Positive Public Health with Tista Ghosh
