Share the Dignity: Calls for Shepparton to help end period poverty

By Caitlyn Grant

Aug 10, 2022

Sharing the dignity: Sandra Laws and Shannon Fisher of Fernwood Fitness Shepparton showing the business’s drop-off point. Photo by Megan Fisher

For the same price as a cup of coffee, one person can have access to the essentials they need during menstruation.

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Australian women’s charity Share the Dignity called for all hands on deck to be able to complete the requests for more than 200,000 period products to go to charities in need.

Share The Dignity founder and managing director Rochelle Courtenay said the numbers proved that people were in “really hard ways”.

“Last year we may have just reached 160,000, but 200,000 — I’ve just watched it climb and climb, and we’re just hoping we can get enough people to donate,” she said.

“We've got rents on the rise, electricity on the rise, food, petrol, everyday living is so expensive, so people cannot afford just the basics of essentials.

“I hate to think about what happens to the women that don't get them.“

Share the Dignity began in 2015 with a goal to make a difference in the lives of women and girls by distributing period products to those experiencing homelessness, fleeing domestic violence or experiencing disadvantage.

The charity manages two dignity drives each year, during March and August, in which sanitary items are collected at partnered points across Australia, including all Woolworths stores.

It also runs an annual event, #ItsInTheBag, which sees Australians put together bags filled with essentials to donate to someone in need over Christmas.

Since 2015, 3.4 million period products have been collected and 282 vending machines distributing free period products have been installed, but women are still struggling.

Share the Dignity’s 2021 Period Pride report determined one in five people who menstruate had to improvise by using a sock or toilet paper.

Of the 125,000 respondents, 49 per cent admitted they had worn a pad or tampon for more than four hours because they didn’t have enough products.

Ms Courtenay said the numbers painted a worrisome picture, much to do with periods being a “taboo topic”.

“We need to make sure that we educate boys and girls from a very young age in our schools, in our workplaces,” she said.

“We make sure that it's not something that we shy away from, because otherwise we're going to still continue to have ‘periods’ as a hushed word in 10 years’ time.”

Products that are donated and collected in Shepparton will stay in the region to be distributed; drop-off points are available at Woolworths and Fernwood Fitness at 290 High St, Shepparton.