June 05, 2020
Budget boost to tackle period poverty timely
KidsCan is welcoming a $2.2 million Budget spend up for sanitary products in schools.
The charity has been researching the phenomenon of period poverty, which is saying it affects more than 20,000 girls and young women in New Zealand schools.
Chief executive Julie Chapman says a priority is providing sanitary products.
She says many girls miss a week of school each month or resort to using toilet paper and socks to manage their menstruation.
The COVID-19 economic slowdown has the potential to make the problem worse if action was not taken.
"What we've found and I think it is only going to get worse is there are families that are having to choose between putting food on the table and buying these products and that's not a choice any family should have to make," Ms Chapman says.
KidsCan has trialled ways to make sanitary products available through schools, including handing out sample kits with products, educational material, discrete carry bags, and student ordering cards in English and Te Reo Māori which helped to reduce embarrassment around asking for supplies.
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