By Angela Clark
Women and girls in West Dunbartonshire can get a three month supply of free sanitary products delivered direct to their door.
The initiative to help tackle period poverty involves Scottish social enterprise HeyGirlsUK teaming up with West Dunbartonshire Council to ensure free tampons and sanitary towels are available to anyone who needs them.
They can also be picked up alongside emergency food parcels from West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare and Food for Thought.
And recently Old Kilpatrick Food Parcels and Faifley Foodshare organised a distribution of products in Clydebank Shopping Centre.
Volunteers helped make up 250 bags filled with sanitary products with a few extra items that had been donated to the food bank including body sprays, soaps and shower gels.
Maureen Cummings, who helps run OK Food Parcels, said: “We will be doing it again if we get more supply and can arrange with the shopping centre to be there every 10 to 12 weeks, perhaps it will become a habit with people and they will come down and get some more towels knowing we are there.
“They were nice girly toiletry bags so it’s definitely something we will try to do on a regular basis. We also took along sweets for the kids to keep them occupied so parents could have a chat about affordability of sanitary products.”
If you are finding it difficult to buy sanitary products or can’t get to any of the distribution points an online ordering service is available.
The only requirement is you are a local resident and can provide a West Dunbartonshire postcode for delivery.
The pack contains a three month supply of day and night time towels/tampons. They will be sent by Royal Mail and can take 2-3 weeks to arrive dependent on stock availability. This will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until venues are open again.
West Dunbartonshire residents can complete their online order here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Z7RZLRY