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[QLD] Free Period Products for Students via "Share the Dignity" in-School Vending Machines

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[QLD] Free Period Products for Students via "Share the Dignity" in-School Vending Machines
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Taegukgi on 07/06/2022 - 11:36 sharethedignity.org.au (2470 clicks)
Last edited 07/06/2022 - 11:44 by 1 other user

Excellent initiative from the QLD Government in association with Share the Dignity.

Access to free period products can make a real difference to children, especially students whose families are doing it tough, have unstable accommodation or are fleeing domestic and family violence.

The Dignity Vending Machine is a world-first innovation that dispenses a free period pack, with six tampons and two pads, at the push of a button. Share the Dignity purchase and supply the specially made #PeriodPacks in the Dignity Vending Machines. Each Dignity Vending Machine is programmed with a delivery delay of 3 minutes to ensure no period packs are wasted.

The first round of applications has now closed. If your school is not successful in the first round, you may re-apply in a second EOI round later in 2022. Applications will be assessed and evaluated using criteria based on each school’s level of need. Your school will be notified of the outcome of your application. If successful, Share the Dignity will email the contract to your nominated contact person.

Health & Beauty Sanitary Pad Tampon

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Comments

          • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 13:03
            -2

            @freefall101: If you shit only 3 days a month, definitely carry a toilet roll with you.

            • freefall101 on 07/06/2022 - 13:06
              +1

              @[Deactivated]: Is that more of your patented "common sense"? How many times a month it happens is the basis for what schools should supply?

              In that case, why don't schools supply all stationary, food, shoes, clothes, etc?

              • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 13:07

                @freefall101: Yes, that's exactly my point. Give free supply for everything. Solves everything, right? Utopia.

                • freefall101 on 07/06/2022 - 13:29
                  +9

                  @[Deactivated]: Might be your point, but you've definitely missed the point of the program then.

                  The benefits outweigh the cost, much like putting toilet paper in schools. It's not about giving away freebies because of some woke bullshit or whatever you believe it's for, it's because there's a clear benefit to the program. Not every girl will use this, plenty will carry their own. But in times where it's necessary, it's really necessary.

                  Go find a woman who had her first period while at school and find out if she would have appreciated this program. The cost is near nothing (it's certainly not $10 a month, have you ever had to buy sanitary pads for a woman?) and it's a basic sanitary need so it makes sense for schools to provide it, much like all the basic healthcare supplies schools supply.

            • kicha on 07/06/2022 - 22:13
              +3

              @[Deactivated]: Funny you think periods only last 3 days a month for everyone, maybe don't speak on things you don't know about

        • jrowls on 07/06/2022 - 14:01
          +18

          This is for kids you absolute dingus.

          How many girls are caught unawares at school for their first (or any of their subsequent) periods and need to go do something embarrassing like ask a teacher or call their parent to help them out?

          Let alone all the kids with parents like you who are complete ignoramuses, or worse, abusive - I personally know women who weren’t taught anything about this and would never feel comfortable asking their dad to buy them (for any number of reasons ranging from embarrassment to potential retribution). Not everyone has a good home life.

          And financially, yes there are families in Australia who cannot afford loads of things. half of our social safety nets in this country put people below the poverty line.

          • 1st-Amendment on 08/06/2022 - 10:21

            @jrowls:

            half of our social safety nets in this country put people below the poverty line.

            I think we all agree on that. Welfare is the root cause for a lot of poverty…

            • jrowls on 08/06/2022 - 10:35
              +1

              @1st-Amendment: show your working

                • jrowls on 08/06/2022 - 10:46
                  +1

                  @1st-Amendment: did you read any of that lmao it doesn't support the hypothesis that "welfare is the root cause for a lot of poverty"

                  but hey, sending a link is certainly one way of looking like you know what you're talking about. do you work in this field? you have a psychology or social work or social science education?

                  • 1st-Amendment on 08/06/2022 - 11:00

                    @jrowls:

                    did you read any of that lmao it doesn't support the hypothesis

                    Because you said so lol… I mean since you said it, it must be true right? You are so clever…

                    • jrowls on 08/06/2022 - 11:29
                      +2

                      @1st-Amendment: i could say the same thing regarding your initial claim - you're the one who made it in the first instance, show your working. burden of proof, baby.

                      there's all sorts of evidence in that report, there is no way that simply providing a link to it proves a point as un-nuanced as 'welfare causes more poverty'. you're simply an ideologue seeking evidence to support your views.

    • doobey1231 on 07/06/2022 - 12:55
      +9

      Yeah we are living in a lucky country in which we can provide these products to the people that need it. Why are you against helping people?

      • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 13:00
        -4

        I am just against policies which encourage laziness and irresponsible spending. Have a read about the homelessness problem in LA and how left-leaning governments have promoted the destruction of that city.

        • doobey1231 on 07/06/2022 - 13:02
          +7

          Impressive how you went from an essential item for teenagers to the downfall of LA. There are plenty other examples of irresponsible spending much worse than this.

          • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 13:04
            +1

            @doobey1231: I am not talking about giving free pads when I say irresponsible spending. I am talking about that family who can't afford to buy a sanitary pad.

            • doobey1231 on 07/06/2022 - 13:09
              +6

              @[Deactivated]: As you have been told several times, this isn't about the money it is about the accessibility. If you think that free sanitary items are going to encourage irresponsible spending you have just made a leap from one thing to the other with no real logical sense, like there's nothing to link those two things you have just made the assumption with no base.

              • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 13:12
                +1

                @doobey1231:

                To ensure those who are most vulnerable have access to pads and tampons, we will continue installing Dignity Vending Machines in public toilets, charities, homeless hubs, domestic violence refuges, community centres, hospitals and schools in low socio-economic areas across Australia

                • doobey1231 on 07/06/2022 - 13:40
                  +1

                  @[Deactivated]: Yeah, like I said, accessibility.

                  Youve been brainwashed into hating people that earn less than you. You are so brainwashed that you are making leaps and bounds from the situation to ham fist it into a silly rhetoric. Look at the bigger picture. Focus on shit like gerry harvey pocketing job keeper money, which is of much higher detriment to the tax payers than a few pads and tampons will ever be.

        • Koffee on 07/06/2022 - 13:13
          +7

          I'm not sure how ensuring that teen girls to go to school to help them break out of a family's cycle of poverty is "encouraging laziness".

          It's not like they can make their parents/guardians prioritise spending on their own personal needs.

          • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 13:23
            -1

            @Koffee: I don't know why everyone is taking my comments out of context? I am just asking why can't families afford 10$ a month on pads? Why are just stopping with sanitary pads, why don't give essentials for free even for boys or non-binary?

            I'm not sure how ensuring that teen girls to go to school to help them break out of a family's cycle of poverty

            If girls aren't going to school for this reason, they won't go for another silly reason as well. If you put a public vending machine, everyone uses or misuses it.

            • 1st-Amendment on 08/06/2022 - 10:26

              @[Deactivated]:

              I don't know why everyone is taking my comments out of context?

              That's how they roll on the Left… you can't win against ignorance…

    • Ezuku on 07/06/2022 - 13:13
      +1

      Oh, agree that we totally shouldn't need to spend money on these things, and if these were for adults I'd agree, but the kids shouldn't suffer for their parent's inability to adequately prioritise where household funds go.

      That said I would be a bit worried these vending machines may be vandalised and misused.

      • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 13:18
        +1

        Agree with the kid's part. And if anyone can access that vending machine, everybody uses or misuses it.

        • TheRealCJ on 07/06/2022 - 14:10
          +1

          Eh. People will find a way to exploit or damage anything. The risk of that shouldn't be an excuse not to do it.

  • HomeAlone on 07/06/2022 - 12:30
    +1

    Great initiative, but I feel they have made the restocking process unnecessarily complicated and it could scare some staff away from ensuring that the machine is kept stocked.

    In the instructions it says "The machines have telemetry that counts stock usage and reports this information to Share the Dignity" so steps 3 through 19 are essentially redundant.

    1. Leave the machine powered on and unlock the door using the key in both locks
    2. Open the door and fill the machine to FULL capacity (the machine holds 59 period packs).
    3. Please remember the number of period packs you put into the machine as you will need to enter this data using the QR code below
    4. Press the red button on the keypad
    5. Press #
    6. Press *
    7. Press #
    8. Locate the red button on the modem. Hold the red button until it beeps
    9. Scan the QR code below with the camera on your phone. A form will open for you to complete.
    10. From the drop-down menu select Restock Notification
    11. Select your State
    12. Scroll down the list of machine numbers and select your school
    13. Enter your contact details
    14. For “Are you a Shero or Hero” select that you work onsite
    15. Next select what type of check in you did
    16. Enter the number of packs that you added to the machine. This allows Share the Dignity to monitor the amount of stock required by your school, and provides Share the Dignity with accurate data collection.
    17. Review next step information
    18. For is the site currently open to the public select No
    19. Press submit
    20. When the display screen reads Finished – close and secure the door with the key.
    • CL7 on 08/06/2022 - 08:30

      You are assuming that it is one of those hotel minibar fridges that has sensors for each item in the fridge and knows when you have lifted it off the sensor so the hotel can charge you.

      That would have to be way too expensive in this kind of vending machine. I am guessing it just monitors how many times a pack is dispensed. When restocking staff might not have enough stock to fully fill the machine, hence you need to enter in how many packs were put in the machine so that it can keep track of what its stock levels are.

      They have clearly put a little bit of thought into the project - I don't think they are making people do steps 4 through 20 because they haven't realised that their own telemetry makes this redundant.

      • HomeAlone on 08/06/2022 - 12:13

        You are assuming that it is one of those hotel minibar fridges that has sensors for each item in the fridge and knows when you have lifted it off the sensor so the hotel can charge you.

        I certainly am not. One is stocked with various different products with a 'per item' sensor to detect what you have removed so that you can be charged accordingly. The other is stocked with a single product that is free. The designs are so completely different that I'm not sure how anyone could make that assumption.

        That would have to be way too expensive in this kind of vending machine.

        That would be completely unnecessary and would just end up as another example of them making things more complicated than they need to be.

        It's a 6 row coil vending machine with no selection options as every item is the same so you don't even need a sensor for each row here. You could get away with using a drop sensor and build the logic around that.

        I am guessing it just monitors how many times a pack is dispensed. When restocking staff might not have enough stock to fully fill the machine, hence you need to enter in how many packs were put in the machine so that it can keep track of what its stock levels are.

        Even then, why can't it just be entered using the keypad inside the machine instead of having to take your phone out, scan a QR code, select your state, find your school from a dropdown list of ~360 locations and fill in a form?

        Also, why does the form ask you to select your state and then still shows you every location/machine in Australia instead of filtering only to the state you literally just selected?

        They have clearly put a little bit of thought into the project - I don't think they are making people do steps 4 through 20 because they haven't realised that their own telemetry makes this redundant.

        Vending machines have existed for a long time without the need to scan QR codes and fill in online forms. I fail to see what makes these machines so unique that they can't operate like the millions of other machines in the world. What problem is the QR code/online form solving?

        • TheRealCJ on 08/06/2022 - 14:05

          From what I understand each machine has a unique identifying number, and restock deliveries are automated. So the company knows exactly how many packs the school has at any given time, and plans their deliveries accordingly so that there's never a situation where the school administration can drop the ball and forget to reorder, leaving the school out of packs for potentially several days or weeks.

          It's a similar system to what the big 2 grocery stores use, except these machines don't have a massive server and fully integrated POS/Stock system, so they rely on the QR codes.

          • HomeAlone on 08/06/2022 - 14:40

            @TheRealCJ: You would think so given that they definitely have all the required information for it, but that's actually not how it works.

            Ordering stock is an entirely manual process, which once again involves scanning that same QR code except this time you have to choose the 'Stock Order' option and then fill out a slightly different form.

            • TheRealCJ on 08/06/2022 - 15:15

              @HomeAlone: Hmm, then the only reason I can think is that they're trying to get very granular metrics on the usage of their machines. Which also makes sense; they're a non-profit trying to get a very specific message across, knowing exact numbers is something they can use to make a very obvious point.

              • HomeAlone on 08/06/2022 - 15:29

                @TheRealCJ: Or maybe it's just a poorly designed system?

                I mean the QR code isn't even unique so any bad actor could go in and start messing around…

                • TheRealCJ on 08/06/2022 - 15:40

                  @HomeAlone: Sure, that's an option too. I think you might be getting lost in the weeds of the design of the machine and ignoring the point of the nonprofit

                  • HomeAlone on 08/06/2022 - 16:13

                    @TheRealCJ: Ignoring the point of the nonprofit? Not at all. If you scroll up you'll see that the very first thing I said was:

                    Great initiative, but I feel they have made the restocking process unnecessarily complicated and it could scare some staff away from ensuring that the machine is kept stocked.

                    • TheRealCJ on 08/06/2022 - 18:40

                      @HomeAlone: Fair enough. It's likely the machine is far more intuitive in person than when it's written down like that though.

    • 1st-Amendment on 08/06/2022 - 10:28

      but I feel they have made the restocking process unnecessarily complicated

      And herein lies the problem with letting the government spend your money. It always ends up more expensive and more complicated than it needs to be.

      • TheRealCJ on 08/06/2022 - 18:42
        +1

        Share the Dignity is a private non-profit. I thought that was what you libertarians were all about? Private charities doing the job of government?

  • MadMud on 07/06/2022 - 13:03
    +19

    It's pretty disgusting that a country as rich as Australia needs these types of initiatives. But sadly it does.
    There is poverty in Australia along with dysfunctional families and communities.
    Period products are a necessity and should not be taxed in the first place.
    Scotland is able and willing to provide free products.
    Meanwhile, in some impoverished countries rags are the go to and "menstrual huts" isolate girls and women during "that time".
    Free period products in schools is a bloody good idea and about time.
    As for the stupid arguments about who should get them, it's anyone who needs them.
    Stay awake, be woke.

    • McFly on 07/06/2022 - 13:20

      bloody good idea

      True, but not sure I'd word it like that myself…

    • 1st-Amendment on 08/06/2022 - 10:31
      -1

      As for the stupid arguments about who should get them, it's anyone who needs them.

      So why don't you pay for them out of your own pocket? Or is only a good idea if someone else is paying for it?

      Stay awake, be woke.

      Oh dear…

  • Raj09 on 07/06/2022 - 13:17

    Do we have this in other states?

    • TheRealCJ on 07/06/2022 - 14:22
      +2

      Hopefully someday soon sanitary products will be made freely available on a federal level.

      • Raj09 on 07/06/2022 - 14:23

        Yes man 😊👍🏾

      • 1st-Amendment on 08/06/2022 - 10:35
        -5

        Hopefully someday soon sanitary products will be made freely available on a federal level.

        Like toothpaste? Organic vegan gluten free shampoo? Where does end?

        The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of spending other people's money…

        • TheRealCJ on 08/06/2022 - 12:25
          +2

          Toothpaste? 100% yes, absolutely.

          Tooth and oral health is linked to a huge number of general health conditions. Dental should be included in Medicare.

          A healthy society is a happy society is a productive society. More productive society = more money.

          You wanna be rich? Embrace social programs.

    • Stoz on 07/06/2022 - 16:04
      +4

      In Victoria since mid-2020:

      https://www.vic.gov.au/free-sanitary-pads-and-tampons-all-go…

      • Raj09 on 07/06/2022 - 17:32
        +1

        Great. I didn't know. This is good

  • BeefBiryani on 08/06/2022 - 10:04

    Next, they should provide free food.

    • 1st-Amendment on 08/06/2022 - 10:36
      -3

      Next, they should provide free food.

      And free cars. We can't have poor people walking to school…

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