How Homeless Woman Cope with Periods and How You Can Help
For many women, a regular routine is waking up to a day filled with errands, work, school, or other tasks and then going back home to spend time with family, a significant other, children, or themselves. However, for the women who live on the streets without a roof over their head, it’s a different story. They go through a day full of challenges with fighting against hunger, migrating from place to place, woman hygiene, and safety. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 39.7% of all homeless people in the U.S. are women. In specifics this signifies that 50,000 women are unsheltered and are living on the streets. Although factors such as hunger and personal safety are obvious obstacles, one of the biggest issues that these women face is accessing menstruation products. As a woman, imagining going through this is tough and one can only imagine the uncomfortable state these ladies are in when the time of the month comes around and they do not have something to use. On average, pads cost $5.84 and tampons $7.62. Annually, if a lady is purchasing pads, she spends $70 within a year and if tampons, then $90 a year. Which are expenses homeless women, who cannot even afford a small bite to eat, simply can’t afford and no woman should have to decide between a meal or a pad. For many reasons. A few being for the sake of being sanitary, the risk of infection, and because it is a natural aspect of the female composition. When resources like pads or tampons are out of reach for these women, other alternatives are used. Women improvise with paper towels, plastic bags, socks, makeup pads, and towels; both the towels and socks must constantly be washed, rinsed, and wringed out. One young lady who was interviewed on the streets of New York City said that she had to do that same routine of washing her towel 4 times in one day. Using these replacements for pads and tampons can also lead to infections and something as serious as Toxic Shock Syndrome. A situation such as this one just goes to show how much women can withstand. Fighting against not only a period that can get messy without proper resources, but going against street violence, rape, access to maternal healthcare, and even gender inequality with jobs.
A few things that can be done to help this cause is by doing a hygiene drive for the homeless at your school, workplace, or other institution. You can even gather volunteers and extra support for the cause within your own neighborhood and drives can be held at the a community hall or location. It can be done for both genders, but it would be good to do a drive solely for women and including products like pads (safer option than tampons), deodorant, toothbrush/paste, some body wipes etc. By doing this, progress and awareness can be brought to every city or community. Below are a few essentials that should be included in a care package for a homeless women:
With NYC being the first U.S. city that requires Public Schools, jails, and shelters to provide free pads and tampons, it is a shame that there aren’t more cities who have followed those footsteps due to laws overruling policies. It is also ridiculous that women have to pay for something that is a natural occurrence within our own anatomy. This is an issue that should be brought more to light and should be spoken about more often at events, schools, and institutions like hospitals as well. Having social media as one of the best platforms to speak about topics that are not addressed, or paid attention too is a great resource for getting the word out about this. Consumerism has outweighed the word requirement and women should never have to tread such tough waters to be able to obtain a necessity that pertains to our genetic makeup.