Sanitary items should not be a privilege, but they should be a right to all women. This is something most of us take for granted.
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Homelessness Australia reports there are 105,237 people in Australia who are homeless. Around 44% of these are women. Homelessness in Tasmania has increased by 32.9% since 2006.
It is shocking to think of the difficulties faced by homeless women on a monthly basis to obtain the basic necessities of feminine hygiene.
Share The Dignity is an organisation that collects and distributes sanitary items to homeless women and domestic violence shelters around Australia.
Share The Dignity founder Rochelle Courtenay says that she first came up with the idea when she read an article online that talked about homeless women not having any necessities like pads and tampons.
“I couldn’t believe that I was reading about this in Australia and that nobody had done anything about it,” Ms Courtenay said.
Rochelle started by collecting 450 packets of sanitary items in her local community and this has now grown into a registered charity collecting hundreds of thousands of pads and tampons.
One small idea turned into something that makes a big difference in thousands of women’s lives.
Although the drive for donations of pads and tampons has already been collected in August you can still help.
#ITSINTHEBAG is another campaign run by Share The Dignity where people donate handbags full of sanitary, health and beauty products, that are then distributed to women in need at Christmas.
“There just wasn’t anything for a women and if you were to give [her] a fifty dollar gift voucher she would spend that on her children,” she said.
“There is nothing nicer than [being given] a handbag with things that you wouldn’t buy for yourself.”
Women fleeing domestic violence leave with next to nothing and many homeless women need to make the choice between buying sanitary items or food.
Last year about 27,000 bags were donated. This year Share the Dignity is hoping to reach the goal of 54,000 bags so that they can extend help to drought and flood affected families.
This is a fabulous cause to be involved in and it can make a huge difference in someone’s life.
This campaign will run from November 19 to December 3.
To find out more information about #ITSINTHEBAG, and your closest drop off point, visit www.sharethedignety.com.au
