When Yanique Brandford was a child, her mother was determined to keep her daughters in school. She improvised hand-made menstrual products from flexible cardboard covered in plastic and wrapped in crumpled newspaper. These makeshift pads were a practical response to period poverty within her household.
“Growing up in Jamaica, access to essential items like sanitary pads was a luxury for most families in my neighbourhood. Most of what we had went toward food or getting to school. A lot of the girls didn’t bother going to school on their period”
When Yanique immigrated to Canada at age 14 and settled in Brampton, she realized that menstrual inequity was not confined to the Caribbean—it was global. As a high school student, she witnessed the challenges faced by immigrants and low-income families firsthand. Motivated by these lived experiences, she began self-funding donation drives on her credit card before formally founding Help A Girl Out in 2018. She was in her first year of university studying physics.
Since 2018, HAGO has distributed nearly two million hygiene and menstrual products to individuals and community organizations serving refugees, BIPOC communities, and low-income families across more than 350 Canadian cities. Yanique is also passionate about supporting projects in the Caribbean and Africa with sustainable in-kind donations.
In recognition of her advocacy and national impact, Yanique received the 2020 Global Citizen Prize: Canada’s Hero Award, along with several additional local and national honours.
Alongside her humanitarian leadership, Yanique has built a career in STEM. Her MSc research focused on improving medical imaging in proton therapy for cancer treatment. She also has within the nuclear energy sector. With an academic background in Medical Physics/Biomedical Physics from Toronto Metropolitan University, she applies critical thinking and data-driven strategy to both fields reflecting her commitment to advancing both scientific innovation and community well-being.
