Period Dignity for Women in the ACT

### Background of the Project As a sexual and reproductive health educator in the ACT for almost a decade I was saddened to learn that there were still young women and girls who were being denied access to period products, because they simply didn’t have anyone who would buy them for them. I also got sick of seeing homeless women with their periods, feeling more ashamed for not being able to manage them with products, and most of the time, by no fault of their own. I would buy them products, but I started thinking, I always buy a packet of tampons or pads when I do my weekly shop, why not throw in an extra and leave them in the local public toilet for ANYONE who might just need it that day. Each month in Australia, up to 1 million people who menstruate struggle to access sanitary products due to their financial struggles. This issue is world-wide and is commonly known as period poverty. It’s a huge contributor to gender inequality and still in some parts of the world women are prevented from managing her periods hygienically and with dignity and still shamed or pushed out of their communities and seen as dirty during their time of menstruation, when in fact it should be a time of rest and celebration. As a result, some women and girls resort to unfriendly alternatives such as toilet paper, newspaper, socks, and even old rags. Such substitutes are becoming far more common as COVID-19 continues to push people into further poverty and around 1 in 10 of people worldwide who get their periods cannot afford menstrual products. With more than 800 million people menstruating daily, a lack of access to menstrual products can affect a girls access to education and opportunities simply because of their gender and then there’s the health factor where we all know, improper feminine hygiene can interrupt school attendance, ability to take part in sport, access to employment opportunities and most importantly having fun! Groups most susceptible to experiencing period poverty include adolescent girls and women from low to middle-income backgrounds, Indigenous Australians and those residing in rural or remote communities. With this initiative we hope to start with enabling access to free period products in the ACT and then work with the ACT Government to make this a nation-wide policy set by the federal government so that women and girls can access sanitary products in public places and avoid the indignity and sexual health problems that arise from not managing their periods properly.

### Main Goal of the Project Build boxes that can be installed in public toilets and spaces that can be filled up by people who want to donate and the ACT government and then also accessed by people who need to use them. Cameras may need to be placed above the boxes to discourage people stealing them, but we’ve trialed it with boxes in the ACT and over a year later the plastic ones we placed are still functioning, so generally people should be kind.