PSA: August Dignity Drive - Help End Period Poverty

Just letting people know that 'share the dignity' is undertaking a Dignity Drive during August where you can donate period products to be distributed to their charity partners across the country. By donating period products you will ensure women, girls and those who menstruate who are experiencing or at risk of domestic violence, homelessness or poverty have access to period products when they need them.

Some people are forced to choose between buying period products, or food to eat.

All products in original packaging, including pads, tampons, reusable pads, period undies, menstrual cups and incontinence products are accepted.

Click on the above link for the various ways to donate.

For instore Woolies shoppers, you can donate period products in the pink collection boxes at all Woolworths supermarkets. Woolworths has 1/2 price sales on at least one period product brand each week so you can maximise your donation this way.

Comments

  • +20

    you will ensure women, girls and those who menstruate

    Wait, what.

      • +2

        Did you mean "women"? "Girls and women"?

        • +1

          The girls part is redundant. A girl who menstruates, by definition is a (young) woman.

          • +2

            @bargaino: The word "female" would cover all of them: girls, women, and transgender men (who were born and still are female). Though I suppose it might offend trans men to be reminded of their biological sex, so it's probably un-PC to use the word "female".

            • +1

              @AustriaBargain: I do know some young trans-people, and don't think they are that easily offended. Does the one-legged man get offended at every phrase that assumes people have two feet?

            • @AustriaBargain: Given incel culture it's disgusting that woman and girls are being called 'female'. As if we are simply an objective human of function rather then those with their own sense of identity - self or cultural imposed - which is often inescapable.

              • +1

                @TiredKitty78: What’s wrong with the word female? I don’t mind being called male.

                • @AustriaBargain: You've not addressed my actual comment, though it didn't really need a response, it wasn't a question. But…

                  What’s wrong with the word female?
                  I don’t mind being called male.

                  ….Is kinda like you're asking the wrong badly loaded question which you've tried to reinforce with an irrelevent anecdote. While you've attempted to remove relevent context. You've said 'I don't mind being called male - which i'll remind you, you almost never actually get called or referenced as - and asked me to justify what is wrong with the word female.

                  Considers this, why didn't you ask "why do females have a problem being called females?"

                  • @TiredKitty78: I get called a male all the time. One kf reddits most popular subs is “male fashion advice”, bathrooms are labelled male, I enter the male category for sports, i’m called a “male” nurse, etc.

                    • -1

                      @AustriaBargain: Look man, i don't think you're able or willing to understand, perhaps empathise, with what i'm discussing so….

        • No they mean adult females, female children, and females.
          Which is disgusting to have to be so explicit as to minimise ones self because the definition of 'adult female' is being ba$tardised and taken away from actual women….

          Almost as if to punish women for not wanting to be defined by their sex….

      • +10

        If you are going to spout this woke shit, especially in the context of helping with menstrual hygiene :

        • Which means you need to have uterine lining.
        • Which means you need to have a Uterus.
        • Which means you need to have XX chromosomes (99.95% of the time).
        • Which means you are female, otherwise known as a girl or woman.

        Then expect to be challenged.

  • +7

    By donating period products you will ensure women, girls and those who menstruate who are experiencing or at risk of domestic violence, homelessness or poverty have access to period products when they need them.

    Lol, ok you win oppression Olympics bingo. That's like every identity politics buzzword crammed into one run-on sentence of pure woke doubleplusungood newspeak.

    • +6

      It's a direct copy/pasta from the link in the post.

      I'm sad that it has infuriated you so.

    • We are doing to disservice to trans people and ourselves, forcing a game of play pretend that you CAN change your sex. Just say you're a transgender wo/man if it comes up.

  • +19

    at risk of domestic violence

    Mrs Muzeeb works in the DV space and FFS there are actually men out there that control the finances so tightly they won't allow their partners to buy sanitary gear. Like WTAF. These men losers should have their bloody wangs cut off. Pardon the pun. Donations will get to safe house around the country so these women can have safety with dignity. FU violent males if you're reading this. FU.

    • +2

      Far out. Beyond effd up!

    • +2

      Please also include those persons that identify as violent males. They should also have their bloody wangs, I mean, something wangish cut off.,

    • These men

      You mean "people who produce sperm"?

      • +2

        I know your response is being light hearted but these offenders typically see themselves as 'real men' and would probably punch you as well if you called them anything but.

        • I wouldn't mind being called a person who spunks, wouldn't punch anyone over it anyway.

    • -1

      Something is really wrong with your morals if you propose to solve a such problems with physical violence and amputation. This sort of language is really inappropriate. Nothing gives you or anyone the right to harm another person physically. And coming in the middle of a post related to DV issues, utterly deplorable. You don't fix violence with violence. Ever.

      • +2

        You know what I meant. FFS

    • There are women out their so crazy they will actually cut off men's wangs. These women losers should ……

    • "Mrs Muzeeb works in the DV space and FFS there are actually men out there …"

      WOW! That is a heavy one.

      How many, as a percentage of men working with Mrs Muzeeb, are actually those nasty ones?

      Critical info this one.

    • People can also find them in some library bathrooms. Which i appreciate. I never take them, because They're like $2-5 in store, and i don't want to theoretically 'take' them from someone that might NEED them.

  • +1

    When 'inclusive' language is written such that it's done to just 'rile up' the masses, and they fall for it every time

    The exact same context, without the clearly 'lets enduce rage and click bait' wording.

    By donating period products you will ensure those who are experiencing or at risk of domestic violence, homelessness or poverty have access to period products when they need them

    • +3

      It's a direct copy/pasta from the charity website. I didn't think a charity drive would bring out the nastiness but looks like that never rests.

      • +3

        Didn't say 'you wrote it', just illustrating how items these days are written by marketing teams in a way that's text book 'this will get us the most engagement, outrage and click bait'.

        The comments above can be considered exhibit A.

        • +3

          Strange, I didn't read it that way at all. I read it in the context of it being 2023 and so trying to be inclusive of all who may be impacted.

          • +2

            @[Deactivated]: You can be inclusive without being specific; we all know who period products are for, it isnt necessary to go to the extent in the blurb unless you're doing it for a specific reason; SBOB is right

            • -1

              @RMBC: Let me tell you something for free 'cause this is OzB after all - if the 'offending few words to the hysterical few' had not been included then I can assure you that these same commentators would have kicked up a fuss as to why not and other such drivel.

              I requested them to desist but it was to no avail.

    • +3

      When 'inclusive' language is written such that it's done to just 'rile up' the masses, and they fall for it every time

      Does it even matter?

      Kajke isn't posting this PSA out of the goodness of his/her/xir's heart out of some altruistic need to genuinely help others. They're no stranger to sh*t-posting and virtue-signalling on OzBargain just to bask in the warmth of the flames of the culture wars.

      And neither are you for that matter, so don't act surprised.

      They probably spent all of their day off (i.e. everyday) finding a suitable piece of bait with which to stoke up a good ol' fashioned OzBargain dumpster fire thread because they live vicariously through their online "activism".

      • -1

        What ?

        I'll order a hieroglyphics keyboard so that you can better understand my posts/comments.

      • Does it even matter?

        As you're clearly demonstrating in this thread that you want to be the poster child of proving the point I raised, I guess not.

        • -1

          As you're clearly demonstrating

          And you're clearly menstruating in this thread, so maybe you should take up kajke's offer?

          • @Gnostikos: What offer is that?

    • I'd dare say it might be classed as covertly 'persuasive' language. Present it as so 'normal' and have AI ready to say you're a evil fobe in the comments. The point is to…have people sip the poison a little but everyday.
      Fly it in under the radar….

  • +2

    those who menstruate

    Great cause, but you lost me there. That is girls/women.

  • -5

    Some people are forced to choose between buying period products, or food to eat.

    Emotional blackmail and utter lies. A box of 32 "super" tampons at Coles is $3.75, which is more than needed per month.
    So just buying one less packet of cigarettes will pay for a year's worth of periods.

    These campaigns are a bunch of self-gratifying virtue-seeking grandstanding, that does nothing to address the real causes of poverty.

    • So just buying one less packet of cigarettes will pay for a year's worth of periods.

      Something …. something about crap written in haste

      • How much is $3.75 eating into your monthly food bill?

        • Do you even menstruate or know someone who does?

          • +1

            @[Deactivated]: I know women. Which is how I know how many they use in a month.

            • @bargaino: Pretty sure you don't based on that bad accounting above.

              • +1

                @[Deactivated]: Actually I think the accounting was pretty close. Purchase choice maybe a little restrictive (tampons and supers) but the math seems fine. What makes it bad accounting?

                • -1

                  @cookie2: How about I don't want to give up an entire packet of ciggies to be able to afford Coles brand tampons?

          • +1

            @[Deactivated]:

            Do you even menstruate, bro?

            FTFY

            • @Gnostikos: I never assume, hence the question.

    • +3

      So should we end soup kitchens, clothing donations, food donations, homeless shelters?

      None of those will fix the real causes of poverty either, but they're definitely worth doing.

      • I doubt bargaino has an issue with donating tampons and stuff to the homeless. I'm guessing some homeless are living outside of the system and aren't receiving Jobseeker or disability payments, even if they qualified for them.

        • +1

          I don't see why it's so important to distinguish, tampons cost next to nothing, giving them to anyone who needs them might not solve poverty but if someone needs them they need them. Maybe they just had a big electricity bill, or a car accident, or whatever.

          Plenty of people don't have spare money just laying around exactly when they need it, we shouldn't qualify who gets tampons any more than we means test toilet paper in a public toilet.

          • +1

            @freefall101: I don't really care, it's sticks of cotton. Government could give a box to everyone in the country and it wouldn't cost much per box, especially with the kind of purchasing power buying 30 million boxes gives you.

          • +1

            @freefall101:

            tampons cost next to nothing, giving them to anyone who needs them

            Then do that! And plenty of charities already are. Quietly, and efficiently.
            Do we really need another so-called "non profit" spending millions of dollars on executive salaries, office re-fits, and consultants ?

            • @bargaino: Maybe they all WFH

              • +1

                @[Deactivated]: You can check their annual report. It is quite the eye-opener. Very slick, but the numbers are disturbing.

                • @bargaino: Not sure how far they'll get re-selling the pads/tampons I donated the other day

                  • +2

                    @[Deactivated]: It will cost them more to distribute than it would have cost to just buy them by the container-load. Never mind the cost to the donors.
                    But nobody will get far in a charity industry career if they think in those terms. Its all about "awareness raising", and cash turnover. People who donate physical goods are a necessary inconvenience to them.

                    Am I too cynical, or still too naive? Charities are a $200 billion dollar industry in Australia, but donations make up less than 10% of that. So even cash donations are unimportant in the big game of building your brand. The real dollars come from government, and selling goods and services.

                    • @bargaino: I don't doubt that some charities take advantage. I recall that Shane Warne's charity had issues.

                      You can always contact a shelter and see whether they will accept donations given direct to them.

            • @bargaino: Why not name those charities then instead of having a whinge about how it doesn't solve the problem of poverty and your rubbish about cigarettes?

              Also, it sounds like we do need one, because they gave out over $8m in tampons last year and have gotten tampon machines in schools. Their office expenses and rent, by the way, were slightly under $100,000 total and they spent $30,000 on contractors. Where did you get that "millions" from? Total salaries was $1.2m but that's spread across all staff (dunno how many they have).

              They seem to run a pretty tight shift, going by their financial statements. Better than the Salvos, where they spend 60% of their revenue on salaries, $10m a year on vehicles, paid KMPG $900k, $20m on "professional fees" and are mostly taxpayer funded.

              • +1

                @freefall101: My complaint was first about the manipulative and misleading claim that "people are forced to choose between buying period products, or food to eat".

                This is not to say "all charities are bad", in case you got that idea. But the industry is out of control. New charities are rent-seeking. Inserting themselves into the cash-flow, and diverting a chunk to things that never needed to exist.

                Where did you get that "millions" from? Total salaries was $1.2m

                In one year. Multiply that by n.

                And millions of dollars for vending machines. For free items!

                • +2

                  @bargaino:

                  My complaint was first about the manipulative and misleading claim that "people are forced to choose between buying period products, or food to eat".

                  Fair enough, and I agree with that. Every charity tugs at heartstrings though.

                  This is not to say "all charities are bad", in case you got that idea. But the industry is out of control. New charities are rent-seeking. Inserting themselves into the cash-flow, and diverting a chunk to things that never needed to exist.

                  Totally agree. Totally irrelevant to this charity. You also keep making claims about this specific charity though that are completely wrong, why keep doubling down on it?

                  You can check their annual report. It is quite the eye-opener. Very slick, but the numbers are disturbing.

                  No they aren't disturbing at all, they're quite normal. As I mentioned, the Salvos take in about $900m a year and spend $570m on salaries. $20 on professional services. That's worrying.

                  It will cost them more to distribute than it would have cost to just buy them by the container-load. Never mind the cost to the donors.

                  They distribute over $8m worth of goods, yet their costs are $2m. Most of the items are actually donated items and they are the distribution point. It's a very well run charity going by the numbers. They also give period products to over charities in order to improve efficient distribution.

                  In one year. Multiply that by n.

                  Salaries tend to occur every year. $1.2m isn't going to cover 20 people and they have thousands of volunteers. Again, that is a well run organisation.

                  And millions of dollars for vending machines. For free items!

                  $1.7m to be exact, over the life of the charity.

                  That one is just common sense though. What happens when you put free items in bathrooms? How are they kept sanitary (they are sanitary products after all)? What's to stop people stealing wholesale and selling them? Horde them like toilet paper?

                  I used to be an auditor focused on NFPs. There are a lot of terrible ones out there (really, really terrible). But what grinds my gears is when people shit on a perfectly good one unnecessarily - you're giving the impression they shouldn't donate to this specific charity in this threat (whether you intend to or not) when it's actually a very financially sound idea.

              • @freefall101: What about pads? Or just v rockets? My friend has told me tampons shouldn't be an everyday all day thing.

          • @freefall101: That's the rule. If someone NEEDS a sanitary product, they NEED a sanitary product. Give them one.

            There will always be girls and women who NEED them, but for some reason don't have them. Let one person bleed everywhere at a mcdonalds or the shopping center. People will change their minds about making them available, free and discreetly, no questions asked, real quick.

    • D0 you want scared 9+ year olds to have sanitary products or not?
      Do you want blood everywhere or not?
      Do you want girls and women to have dignity or not?

      I'd rather have extra taxes paid so women - especially girls - who need them can get sanitary products free at any library or shopping mall bathroom.

      I'd actually class it as a human right almost….

  • -2

    I saw that bin at woolworths. I assumed they take them out at the end of the night and stick them back on the shelf.

    • +1

      That would be terrible, Muriel

      • -1

        It would be even more terrible if they used them first…

  • +4

    Excellent program, support it!

    But why are people even discussing the word choices? People are so sensitive about anything, everyone is so polarised. If you don't like PC you won't enjoy reading anything anymore because the world is becoming more inclusive, so get used to it and don't worry about it. Be macho, be girly, i don't care, but this squabbling about Woke words etc is nuts… just don't look up! Goes both ways really, for when some people object to well intended non offensive word choices and kick up a stink. What a world we live in.

    • +1

      because the world is becoming more inclusive, so get used to it and don't worry about it.

      I fail to see how anyone can be so wilfully ignorant and make statements like this unless they've been living under a rock for the past decade.

      The world is quite clearly becoming more divided, polarised and hate-filled and this thread is a testament to that.

      You're living in a bubble, inhabited by a loud minority of buzzword-obsessed, clout-worshipping children living in a state of learned helplessness with the government and its institutions acting as a surrogate for a family, who think that because self-serving corporations and institutions are referencing their marginal group identities in marketing/PR propaganda, that they're somehow "winning" meanwhile the silent majority of normal, working-class people who don't have time to keep up with the never-ending amount of genders, isms, outrages and "insert current thing of political import" are only drifting further and further away from the loud minority and recognising for once in their lives how completely alienating and psychologically-manipulating this kind of constant, agitprop bombardment levelled at them through mass media and the Internet is.

      You can keep screaming from the rooftops about how your woke utopia is imminent but as the quality of life and standards of human development decline across the world and we enter an age of economic deprivation not seen in living memory, ordinary people won't hear you because they have real problems facing them that are not only failing to be addressed by anyone but that are being ignored, buried and memory-holed in favour of publicising the loud minority's "struggles" which only breeds resentment and marginalisation in the silent majority in the long-term.

      We're headed for dark times, which as per usual in human history always arrive via the road paved with good intentions.

      • I'm reading this as if dark, disturbed Jerry was saying it in the Seinfeld 'The Visa' episode.

    • well intended non offensive word choices

      Except it wasn't well intended. It was to virtue signal 'i'm promoting them and their narrative'.

      Another user pointed out they could have written it as 'donate to make period products available to anyone that needs them'. Instead of 'donate to make them available to women, girls, AND transgender people. And you're mad people are not accepting it.

  • +2

    This charity organisation should outsource to get sanitary products made in bulk in a generic format with a quality control environment and distribute instead encouraging to buy from WW & Coles to make their pocket fat. Items from supermarkets are for retail individuals and not for mass distribution.

    In India sanitary products are now made in the home industry and sold to women for Rs 3 ie about 6 cents and they still make a profit. This give dignity to every women to buy her own personal items instead of begging and scavanging.

    • +1

      Honestly that's a great idea. Just do a yearly or consistent charity drive.

      I wonder how much it would cost to get generic made and sold?
      Because this could just be about making money for these companies in the guise of helping the less fortunate.

  • One simple thing I do NOT understand.

    How did "menstruating humans" survive some 200? (or 2000) years ago when there was NOTHING to go and buy???

    Perhaps investigating the past might help to "alleviate" than period poverty.

    • Google broken?

      • No Google 200 years ago.

        People used to talk to each other and learn. No handouts then.

        • Are you so put out by the mere thought of donating period products that you want to know how women during the Stone Age got by when they were menstruating?

          • @[Deactivated]: Why do you imagine things, why do you fabricate ill feelings?

            The point is that, apparently, some "menstruating humans" need to go and SHOP, to go and PAY money to handle their menstruating periods. And, apparently, is extra money they don't have.

            So, how humanity did it BEFORE shops and money existed?

            The issue here is that it is PERPETUATING the NEED to buy accessories to handle something as natural and predictable as menstruation.

            Help and donations should be for those in real need. Homeless people pops in my mind first.

            • @LFO: lol

              You're probably trying to be funny & outrageous yet it speaks volumes about how you've chosen to 'phrase' your comments.

              I'm sorry you went through …… whatever you went through.

              • @[Deactivated]: "I'm sorry you went through "

                Thank you but it didn't happen.

                Did it happen to you?
                Participating in aimless purposeless pseudo-charity activities rarely help.
                But don't despair, there is good help out there.

                • @LFO: I'm wishing you well because I don't know how to further engage with you other than that.

                  • @[Deactivated]: "I'm wishing you well "

                    Me too.

                    And please remember that deeper issues need proper attention as they will not go away with trivial tasks.

                    • @LFO: You're triggered by a 'period products post' (try saying it 3 times fast) & a comment about coercive control + you regard charitable acts as 'trivial'. I feel sad about all that 😢

                      As they say in the you-ess, I'll pray for you.

                      I hope we're good now.

                      • @[Deactivated]: "I'll pray for you."

                        Before praying STOP attacking me because of my personal views.

                        You are directly assaulting me with words and stigmas just because I question the validity of some charity work that, IMHO, perpetuates the "need" to buy what might not be needed after all.

                        Stop the personal attack and reconsider that some other people have a different opinion.

                        Agree to disagree.
                        Without aggro, without hate, without personal attacks.

                        • @LFO: So, we're still not good?

                          • @[Deactivated]: Not good for what?

                            • @LFO: I still detect a smidge of animosity and I don't want things to be hostile-like within the warm & fuzzy cocoon that is the OzB community.

                              Also, I like to have the last word.

    • "survive" is an odd choice. It's how did they go along with daily life?

      tldr;

      They didn't per se. Because they were banished to literally secluded areas with other bleeding women, away from others until they stopped bleeding. These still exist today.
      Or they used leaves, moss, fabric, cotton (?) and some must have 'free bled'.

      • -1

        "Because they were banished to literally secluded areas with other bleeding women,"

        I disagree.

        Certainly I wasn't there 2000 years ago … nor even 200 … but, say, +50 years ago, well before tampons were "a must", women have a semi-normal life.
        Unfortunately today the expectation is a full-full lifestyle regardless. And, frankly, this extends to virtually all aspects of life on both genders. How many times someone taking antibiotics (for a minor illness of some kind) wishes to continue partying and drinking?

        But I digress …

        My biggest issue here is this charity seems to equate their services to food or to a basic NEED.
        And I think it is NOT the case and only foments a society of consumerism.

  • +1

    If biological men who think they are women get - to be i think to use correct terminology - triggered by hearing women defined - correctly - as those who could possibly menstruate, then that's a them problem.

    Is 'inclusive' language ok, when it forces existing language and it's meaning to be changed from 'definitions' that can be easily looked up in a dictionary, to effectively….a type of slang.

    The google dictionary says:

    Woman: "an adult female human being"

    It's almost degrading that we have to define what a female is. Which on the flip side, let's be clear: A man is not female, and a man is not a woman.
    You cannot be a man AND a woman.
    You cannot be a man and a female
    You cannot extricate woman from 'female'. Woman is a word that denotes an adult female, versus a child female "girl". That is the true definition.
    They did a documentary on this and you should watch the amount of people who could not bring themselves, who basically refused to define what a woman is, because they know the cultural climate currently around woman being used by men to claim they are female. And they do not wish to go against the current social climate, and anger or trigger men who want to use the direct link of woman-female to force and trick others into accepting them.

    What's worse is how gender has been changed such that it's almost not worth being in the dictionary anymore:

    Gender: "the male sex or the female sex, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones, or one of a range of other identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female."

    It's insulting. Because "considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones" is a fancy way of putting onus on it that girls do and look like this, boys do and look like this. Therefore if i do this, i can say my gender is "woman". Literally taking a word away from women. It feels like we'd be taking a step 500 years backwards to have to call ourselves "female" because that is correct. Like it's an F U because women cannot and will not change, and will not be allowed to change these so called 'ideas' of what identifies one to others as female. Also, there is not "established ideas" of what fe/male is. There is a clinical definition.

    At this point, we might as well give them what they want and say sure, "gender" is now a construct, a costume. So when someone says i'm a woman we can be specific about saying well do you meet the definition for female or male?

    Oh but what does transgender get

    Transgender: "denoting or relating to a person whose gender identity does not correspond with the sex registered for them at birth."

    Which i guess we can get into whether you are as you see yourself, or if you are as others identify you. Also it is not registered it is sex identified at birth. Unless perhaps they are intersex. Not to mention this explicitly ties in gender identity and it's biological and eventual cultural expressions as typical to the biological sex if being 'trans' means that you do not personally identify yourself with the sex you are. Of which there are two (2).**

    What's concerning. Is i'm wondering if there's something bigger in removing or changing the word "woman". Meaning adult female. When you think woman, you think adult, sexually viable. Even a teenaged child who's well into puberty might be called a 'young woman'. Now we're expected to go by 'girl' and 'female'. It's almost infantalising. You are either a child, or an object WITHOUT identity, a female. Very National Geographic. Very The Handmaids Tale. A male gets boy and man. And with how incels go, and how some men like to say 'well technically…' thinking 'old enough to bleed….'. What? You're either a 'girl' or you're a 'female' and given how female is about potential reproductive functioning. It's almost a giant game against women.

    • How about the looming referendum, huh?

      A 'Vote for Pedro' perhaps.

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