Anyone who experiences having their period knows menstruation products are a necessary evil.
Now, imagine experiencing life on the street or living in poverty and facing financial barriers that leave you struggling to afford items to maintain personal hygiene.
For the first time, United Way Victoria is joining the Tampon Tuesday movement, holding their own drive to collect menstrual products in partnership with the Victoria Labour Council and United Way Greater Victoria’s Labour Committee.
“Tampon Tuesday addresses an aspect of poverty that is rarely considered or discussed, the monthly expense of menstrual products,” says Jennifer Young, director of communications for United Way.
The goal of the drive is to fill the space of a transit bus, and you can help by bringing donations to a variety of drop-off locations listed at uwgv.ca/tampontuesday, or bring unopened boxes of menstrual products to the Hillside Shopping Centre, March 3 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. for the ‘Help Fill The Bus’ event.
Beginning March 6, the United Way will distribute the donations to community partners that help women and youth.
Tampon Tuesday started back in 2009 in Ontario ahead of International Women’s Day, and in 2017 United Way in the Lower Mainland jumped on board.
The cost of tampons has long been a hot topic. In 2015, the NDP passed a motion to eliminate taxing menstrual products which took effect July 1 of that year. Previous to that, the government considered tampons and pads to be a “non-essential” or “luxury” item.
In February of this year, the federal NDP adopted a resolution to make menstrual products free at their annual convention, urging the creation of a health subsidy to cover the cost.
Until then, your help is needed. Period.
