Watching a documentary on homeless women and their day-to-day struggles has compelled one Parkes woman to make a difference in hers and neighbouring communities.
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Haylee Pottage decided to become a volunteer with Share the Dignity – a charity that collects and distributes sanitary and personal products nationally for homeless women, women in domestic violence shelters, and women and girls in dire poverty.
And August is the month they run their Dignity Drive.
Haylee has only been volunteering with the charity for a month but has already set up a number of collection points for the drive around Parkes and Forbes.
“I watched a US documentary on the homeless and it got me thinking about my local area and what we provide,” she said.
“Women spoke about what they found to be the hardest thing and that was having their period once a month.”
Haylee decided to research what was available in the region and she found Share the Dignity, contacting the NSW branch not long afterwards.
She also found the number of people who are homeless in Parkes and Forbes – between 75-80 people on average per night – alarming. And the 11,400 homeless women across the state just as much.
Haylee is the charity’s only Parkes and Forbes volunteer and already has nine businesses helping her collect sanitary products.
At the end of August, Haylee will gather all the donations from the collection points and give them to CentaCare to distribute.
“Everything stays local,” she said.
“CentaCare has two programs to help the homeless, a specialist homeless program and a women’s refuge program.”
Haylee is calling on the public to donate sanitary items at any of the following collection points: Parkes Champion Post, Joblink Plus Parkes and Forbes, Coles Parkes, Ron Dunford Chemist Parkes, Parkes LIfe Pharmacy, La Bella Medispa, Charisma Hair Design and Northparkes Mines.
Haylee is searching for more Forbes businesses who may be interested.
If any Parkes or Forbes businesses would like to help out with collecting donations, just give Haylee a call on 0405 197 322.
“Being my first time, I have no expectations, I’ll be happy with anything,” she said.
“We have two drives a year solely dedicated to sanitary items, one in April and August.”
Once this drive is finished, Haylee plans to take part in the charity’s next drive called ‘It’s in the Bag’ in November, in time for Christmas.
“This covers what we see as essentials and items we take for granted, such as deodorant, soap, and shampoo and conditioner, etc, all put in a second hand bag,” she said.
Share the Dignity was founded in 2015 by Rochelle Courtenay after she discovered that thousands of Australian women couldn’t access sanitary products when they needed them.
For more than 85,000 Australian women and girls this is their reality.
Homeless women, women in domestic violence shelters, and women and girls in dire poverty, simply can’t afford sanitary products and are improvising – using paper towels, newspapers, socks and even dried leaves.
Women are being forced to choose between buying food or buying expensive sanitary items to get through their periods.
