Cannock Soroptimists have become aware of a growing problem in this country – families who cannot afford to buy sanitary wear needed each month. A survey found that more than 137,700 girls have missed school in the last year because they couldn’t afford sanitary products.
6 per cent of parents admit they have been so desperate to equip their daughters with sanitary protection they have resorted to stealing on the occasions they couldn’t afford to buy them, whilst more than a fifth of parents said they had gone without something themselves so they had enough money to meet their daughter’s needs.
Women’s Aid is aware of the issue as are food banks throughout the country. Many food banks distribute sanitary products and there are some specialist distribution centres already set up. Cannock Soroptimists made an initial collection of products to give to Staffordshire Women’s Aid to be donated to women in the Cannock area who use their outreach services and are unable to afford the monthly protection they need. Soroptimists are looking into ways of setting up collection and distribution on a more regular basis.
Obviously this needs more help than a local collection can provide and so SI Cannock and District has set up a petition on the Government Petitions page. 10,000 signatures will elicit a response from Government, 100,000 will bring a debate in Parliament. Cannock Soroptimists ask everyone who reads this, if they agree that the issue needs to be addressed, to please sign the petition and then to send it on to all of their family, friends and colleagues asking them to sign. That in itself will raise the issue throughout the country.
The petition can be accessed on either the Government petition site or on the petitions page of the SIGBI site: www.sigbi.org. The formal wording of the petition is as follows:
Cannock & District Soroptimists are asking the government to provide free sanitary products to young women receiving free school meals.
Recent media reports have highlighted issues relating to what is being described as period poverty. 137,700 UK girls miss school each year in addition to putting their health at risk trying to manage without these essential items. Cannock Soroptimists believe funding is needed to end period poverty.
Please sign and share our petition.
Petition: Provide free sanitary products to young women receiving free school meals
Cannock Soroptimist activities can be followed on their website: www.sigbi.org/cannock-and-district, on their face book page: www.facebook.com/SICannock or on twitter @sicannock
Cannock Soroptimists would love to hear from you if you are interested in joining them with the work they do. Membership is open to any woman so if you are interesting in helping other women, locally, nationally and internationally please contact us and come along to a meeting with no obligation to join.
Photo attached: Some of the sanitary products recently donated to Staffordshire Women’s Aid