Eastlight campaigners visit 10 Downing Street for International Women’s Day

Two Eastlight colleagues joined equally inspiring entrepreneurs to mark International Women’s Day following an invite from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Suzanne Hunnable-Letch and Carolina Skoog received a highly exclusive invitation to 10 Downing Street for their work on Grow with the Flow, which aims to empower young women to openly discuss their periods and understand that they’re nothing to be embarrassed about.

Grow with the Flow has been created by one of four teams of local residents who are spending a year creating a solution tackling a major social issue through All In, which has been created and funded by Eastlight Community Homes.

Suzanne is a member of the Halstead team while Carolina is part of the team which created the All In programme.

At the reception, they mingled with other amazing entrepreneurs and business owners, from the woman who has created a start-up using AI to analyse microscope data, to the founders of Luminary Bakery, which provides on-the-job training for women from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Carolina said everyone they spoke to were impressed with the All In programme and recognised the need for Grow with the Flow.

She said: "We spoke about Grow with the Flow to women of all ages, and the consistent reaction was 'I wish I had that now'. People could relate it to their own experiences growing up, and see the real need for it, no matter when that was.

“People also thought All In sounded amazing and kept telling us that the process the teams have been following is how change should be done.”

Grow with the Flow is unique – there’s nothing like it in the UK - and the team believe their message of period positivity is sorely needed by young women in Halstead and beyond.

Sue said: “My highlight of the afternoon was meeting Professor Dame Lesley Regan, who’s the UK’s Women’s Health Ambassador. She was amazing and said: ‘Let’s do some work together’.

“We’re now hoping to take some young women from Halstead’s schools to have a round-table discussion around menstrual health – that would be really exciting.”

Find out more about All In at www.weareallin.co.uk