OVER 85,000 Australian women and girls do not have access to sanitary pads or tampons, according to charity organisation to Share the Dignity.
The organisation was founded in 2015 by Brisbane woman Rochelle Courtenay after she discovered that thousands of Australian women could not access sanitary products when they needed them.
She said homeless women, women in domestic violence shelters, women and girls in dire poverty, simply could not afford sanitary products, so they improvised – using paper towels, newspapers, socks even dried leaves to create makeshift sanitary pads.
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READ NOW“Its traumatic, embarrassing and undignified,” she said.
“Access to sanitary items has been declared a human right by the United Nations.”
Ms Courtenay said the national charity has collected over 650,000 packets of pads and tampons for women in need since the first sanitary drive in 2015.
Share the Dignity will host its second sanitary drive until August 31 until the end of the month.
City of Stirling residents can donate at the HCF health insurance branch at Karrinyup Shopping Centre until August 31.
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