Calls to supply free sanitary products in Australian schools

By JAMAL BEN HADDOU

A campaign to provide free sanitary products for Australian schoolgirls is gathering increasing popularity amid fears economically disadvantaged students cannot afford menstrual pads or tampons.

A campaign on Change.org is petitioning personal care corporations to provide free tampons and pads for girls in all primary and secondary schools. 

While some schools already provide these items, there is no nation-wide program to ensure all students have access to sanitary products.

Petition organiser Monique Horsey said it was important for schools to provide for girls who are caught off guard.  

“Menstrual products are just as important and necessary as toilet paper, however [they] sadly aren’t provided to students as freely as they should be,” she said in the petition.

Ms Horsey said she would also like the government to put funding into a nation-wide program to provide for girls from low socio-economic backgrounds.

“Not every young girl has parents who for whatever reason provides them these items,” she said.

“Obviously, every parent has the responsibility to care for their kids however … when a girl spends six to eight hours a day at school for five days a week, there is a level of responsibility that schools have to step up to in making these items accessible for girls.”

Last year, Queensland-based charity Share the Dignity launched the Pink Box project, Australia’s first vending machine that provides free tampons and pads to disadvantaged women and girls.

This year, the organisation will be rolling out some of the vending machines into severely disadvantaged schools.

Share the Dignity founder Rochelle Courtenay said she was concerned girls were missing out on school simply because they could not afford basic sanitary products.

“Either these girls do not come to school or they’re so uncomfortable by having made pads out of toilet paper that they’re not really concentrating,” she said.

“The only person who is losing here is that young girl who gets behind in schoolwork and does not feel worthy or dignified.”

Ms Courtenay said the 10 per cent tax on tampons also contributed to issues in affordability.

Although Ms Courtenay has called the petition a “fabulous idea”, she said funding was a significant barrier to many worthy charitable causes. 

“We can’t even get the tampon tax removed so I don’t know if we’re ever going to see free pads and tampons rolled out in schools,” she said.

“Where will the government get that money? It would need to come from charity and private enterprise, funding is just all too rare.”

The petition will be delivered to major personal care companies Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson, and Libra Australia.

Home page image by Eric E Castro/ Flickr