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Period poverty campaign breaks records

Nov 16, 2018 | 3:47 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Celina Symmonds, co-executive director of the Medicine Hat Food Bank, remembers once instance specifically that made the shelter want to collect feminine hygiene products.

“We had a young girl come in and she and her mother had fled family violence and mom was having a really hard time making ends meet and this young girl had been wrapping up toilet paper in her underwear for 3 months so not to ask her mom for feminine hygiene products.”

That experience three years ago prompted the start of a campaign aimed at making sure every woman has access to feminine hygiene products at the food bank.

However, keeping the shelves stocked with these products was difficult as it’s not something commonly donated.

So, she spoke to her friend Tara Williams, an instructor at Medicine Hat College. Now, the campaign is a completely student run initiative.

“The students create the tag lines, we run it online, they help foster it online,” says Williams. “This year we had a group of visual communications students, third years, and they joined in and made some cool visuals to kind of attract and show the message.”

Each year has had a hashtag dedicated to it, and 2018 is ‘lady business is your business’. On top of the tag lines, Hatters have been challenging each other to buy two boxes of hygiene products and pass it on. The challenges were shared all over twitter and Facebook, making 2018 the most successful year to date.

“When you can communicate a need, and you can tell them why it is, and challenge people to do it,” says Williams. “They’re more than happy to jump on board when it really makes sense.”

Donations more than doubled from last year, with roughly $10,000 worth of products stocking the shelves. However, no matter how many products are available, if people don’t ask for them due to embarrassment and stigma, they wont do a thing help.

“I think we have to talk about these things, if we don’t talk about it then it’ll never change, and the reality is this isn’t a want for women, this is an absolute need and they cannot go without it so we need to talk about ‘how do we provide for those who can’t provide for themselves.”

As a result, students put out graphics with the hashtag ‘pad the stats’ with hopes of targeting a group that often stays quiet around menstruation; men.

“It’s massive, I said last year that men really got on board, this year it was amazing,” says Williams. “We had so many men get on board and really believe in the cause and really know why were doing it.”

The month long online campaign finished Thursday, and now the food bank should be stocked up for the year. However, they help support other foundations in the community, like the women’s shelter, so they’ll always be accepting donations.