Tampon and Pad Drive: RED ALERT! From the Girl Gang Collective. www.girlgangcollective.org/redalertdsm
Is there a need?
There is a long list of things we shouldn’t need, but they exist. Psychological specialisation on traumatised child soldiers. Homes for underage mothers. Campaigns to eliminate stigmatisation over menstruation symptoms. A maternity wear collection for twelve-year-olds. This list could go on and on. Yet most of these things are day to day business for many people. The maternity wear for young girls is not intended for sale, it’s a wake up call. And the rest should be too.
Yes, it’s a good thing we have them, but then again it’s not. No child should be forced to kill, no girl or woman discriminated against because she has her period. But the more common these campaigns and institutions become, the more sure we feel that the reason at their core is being taken care of. It’s the well-known effect that keeps people from intervening after a car crash. Someone else is already helping, they are more qualified than I am, they don’t need my assistance. But they do. While we are now aware of drastic injustice in for many of us far corners of the world, there is still so much to abolish that shouldn’t exist.
For example, the De Moines Girl Gang is calling for help in their struggle to supply women with tampons and pads who are not wealthy enough to buy even the most basic hygiene products. This is worth an outcry and immediate action. Because the need for sanitary donations is another thing on the above list.
Let’s rid the world of it together.
-Kristina Kraemer
Junior Editor
Girl News International