Target reached!
The more money I can raise the more women I can help, periods happen every month so ...
Street Cramps Manchester
Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Providing women on the streets with essential sanitary products in monthly boxes.
I’m a 25 year old girl living and working in Manchester. After studying chemistry at University in Sheffield I have returned to my home town to work for one of the worlds largest chemical companies. I love my job and outside of work I love singing and dancing (always been a bit of a performer). It’s always been in my personality to help people and make peoples lives easier, this is why I’m starting this Crowd Funding.
Periods are awful but I just can’t imagine going through that whilst being homeless. Homeless women have so much to contend with already but adding worry and stress of preparing for a period must make life so much worse!
My aim is to raise enough money to help some local women, whether that’s one woman or 50! Any donation you can give would be amazing and I thank you so much in advance.
The idea:
In England women make up 26% of the homeless service clients. The need for free help is increasing with higher and higher numbers of women on the streets. Our boxes will be handed out from food banks and homeless shelters as this is our only reliable and consistent way of reaching out.
It is hard to estimate the numbers of women rough sleepers as many women who are on the streets make efforts to ‘remain invisible’ by choosing places to sleep which are hidden from view and disguising their homeless status in some way. This means it would be difficult for us to just hand them out. The homeless aren't the only ones who need help, people who are relying on food banks may not have money to spare on something that the government deemed a 'luxury item', so the boxes can help anyone who needs one.
Why is this important?
A woman in her lifetime uses on average 11,000 sanitary products, this amounts to £18,450 on tampons, pads and pain relief, how do you afford this if you're on the streets? The average period costs £492 annually, tampons costing an average of £7, this is a cost that women on the streets can't afford. Many women on the streets are choosing between food or tampons and food wins every time. By providing a woman with basic sanitary needs they are also given the dignity that they deserve.
The box:
Each box will provide a woman with:
> Pads/Tampons - These are basic items and essential for women on the streets, they are forced to use things that are demoralising and could potentially cause health issues
> Hand sanitiser - To keep themselves clean and to provide a sense of hygiene
> Wipes > Deodorant - These both are for comfort and personal needs, helping them to feel less uncomfortable
> Heat pads - To deal with cramps. Pain relief can't just be handed out and when they don't have access to hot water for water bottles or any other way of dealing with pain, these are air-activated pads that stick straight onto the body to help relieve the pain.
Your pledge:
£10 pounds can provide a woman with essentials for one month, £120 could provide a whole year. Whatever you pledge will be put towards providing the women with boxes. Whatever funding we get will will continue to use to create the packs.
This project successfully funded on 7th April 2019