Around 26% of the world’s female population is of reproductive age, and therefore menstruates each month for two to seven days. Over a lifetime, that is 9 years in total a female is menstruating. Yet, as normal as this natural process is, it has been stigmatised all over the world.
Access to information, education, menstrual hygiene products and appropriate facilities for management and disposal of products associated with menstruation, is lacking. The lack of these essentials is referred to as ‘period poverty.’ According to the 2021 Period Pride Report, 1 in 5 Australian women experience period poverty. Removing the stigma and taboo of menstruation, as well as ensuring everyone who has a period has easy access to period products when they need them is about achieving ‘period justice’.
That’s why at this week’s council meeting, I am moving that the Town of Gawler, with funding from the Commissioner of Children and Young People, partner with TABOO Period Products, a social enterprise founded in Adelaide, to provide free pads and tampons to anyone who needs them at select locations in council-owned facilities.
This will ensure we play out part on fighting for period justice within our community, and giving members of our community who might find it difficult to access period products an option. At the same time, also reducing the stigma around periods.
We need to live in a world where access to tampons and pads are just as common as access to toilet paper.
By implementing a program such as this and partnering with TABOO, it shows the broader community that we are serious about fighting for equal rights and willing to act on a serious injustice that historically around the world has never been talked about, yet had any action taken.
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