It is estimated that over 22,000 Victorians are currently homeless and almost 10,000 of them are women.
Besides the obvious challenges of finding food and shelter, homeless women, who have little to no money, also have to find a way to manage their monthly menstruations.
Being unable to afford the proper sanitary products designed for menstrual management can have serious mental and physical health effects on homeless women.
“People often use products like toilet paper, that are not adequate nor designed for the job, which leads to lots of infections, humiliation, and stress,” said Donna Stolzenberg, the director and founder of the Melbourne Homeless Collective Group.
After being made aware of a similar organisation in the United Kingdom, Ms Stolzenberg decided to create the Melbourne Period Project in June, 2015.
The 100 per cent non-profit charity organisation focuses on providing Victorian homeless women with a choice of four different menstrual management packages.
“Each pack is designed to cope with an average menstrual period of five to six days. They’ve got everything in them for someone who has no bathroom; pads, tampons, hand sanitiser, wipes, liners and disposable bags,” said Ms Stolzenberg.
In addition to their four regular packages, the organisation also has a made-to-order package for transsexual people.
Within the past 11 months, the Melbourne Period Project has rapidly grown to include a total of 175 private and business addressed donation drop-off points across Melbourne.
Carmel, a representative of the Melbourne’s Leading Nanny Agency, one of the 175 donation drop-off points, said that the Melbourne Period Project brought their staff “a sense of awareness…I don’t think any of us had ever thought about what it would be like to be…homeless and having your period with no means to buy sanitary products.”
When enough sanitary products have been collected at the drop-off points, volunteers then send them to the central warehouse located in Port Melbourne.
At the warehouse the sanitary products are divided into the different packages, and delivered to various homeless aid organisations such as Launch Housing.
“A couple of times a week we actually go out on to the street, with the different packages, where we find homeless women and ask them if they need any sanitary items and we give them out,” said Ms Stolzenberg.
One of the difficult parts of running the non-profit organisation is having to remind people that the donations they make are disposable.
“Everything that is donated is gone in a month. We need people to repeat donate.” said Ms Stolzenberg.
Besides sanitary products, people can also donate $5 to the Melbourne Period Project, which will go directly towards sourcing the brown paper bags in which the sanitary products are packed in.
“The bags are probably our biggest ongoing expense. We go through a lot.” said Ms Stolzenberg.
On Saturday May 21, 2016 the Melbourne Period Project will be holding a fundraising event at the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood.
The event will include live performances from local musicians, an art auction, market stalls and a drop-off point for any blankets or sanitary product donations.
*Feature photo by Zaya Altangerel
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