WUNRN
USA – LEGISLATION TO PROTECT HOMELESS & VULNERABLE
YOUTH FAILED TO PASS THE US SENATE
22
April 2015 - WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Senate failed to pass S.A.290/S.262, the
Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act today, despite the
majority of the Senate voting in favor of this legislation in a 56 to 43
vote. This legislation would have comprehensively reauthorized the
Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA), but was 4 votes short of the required 60
vote threshold……
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/14/homeless-women-tampons_n_6465230.html
USA – FOR HOMELESS WOMEN & GIRLS, GETTING THEIR
MONTHLY PERIOD IS ONE OF THE GREATEST CHALLENGES
The Huffington Post | By Eleanor Goldberg
January 14, 2015 - Homeless women typically know where to find a
safe place to sleep or a hot meal to eat. But when it comes to taking care of
their feminine hygiene needs, they often have nowhere to turn.
Tampons
and sanitary pads usually top the list of needs at shelters, since they’re
pricey and supporters don’t often donate them, social workers told Al
Jazeera. Compounding the issue is the fact that clean showers are also scarce,
and not washing during menstruation can lead to infections. It’s a desperate
situation that many homeless women feel resigned to accept.
"I’ll never be
clean," a young woman living on the streets of San
Francisco once told Doniece Sandoval, the entrepreneur behind Lava Mae, a
mobile shower program, according to Nation Swell.
Maribel Guillet, 36, is all too familiar with that despondent
feeling. Guillet, who lives in a Bronx, New York, homeless shelter, typically menstruates for
about 10 days and experiences heavy bleeding, she told Al
Jazeera. But because of the shelter’s strict restrictions, she can’t always use
the restroom as often as she needs to.
The fact that menstruation is a taboo topic to begin with, means
that people who are able help, often aren’t even aware that such a vast need
exists.
While donating clothes to a homeless day center in Camden, New
Jersey, back in 2009, Joanie Balderstone and her partner, Rebecca McIntire,
asked the women there what else they really needed.
The
overwhelming consensus was pads and
tampons, the couple wrote on their organization’s website. That
interaction is what spurred the pair to found Distributing Dignity, a
nonprofit that donates bras and feminine hygiene products to women in need.
A
few months later, they hosted their first "Mardi Bra" party, according to Philly.com. Guests donated 80 new bras and hundreds of
feminine products that the founders distributed to shelters in Camden. They’ve
since expanded to help shelters throughout South Jersey and Philadelphia.
Gaining access to such an everyday item has proved to be
invaluable to the women Distributing Dignity helps.
When residents at Camden County Women's Center, which supports
survivors of domestic abuse, recently got shipment of sanitary napkins, they
were thrilled to see that the box contained pads of varying sizes.
"It
sounds silly," Jeen Moncayo, a case worker at the center, told Philly.com, "but the choice is empowering."