A local non-profit understands the needs of women affected by the ongoing pandemic.
I Support the Girls (ISTG)-Metro Manila is an affiliate chapter of the international non-profit that collects and distributes bras, underwear, and menstrual hygiene products, allowing women experiencing homelessness, impoverishment, or distress to stand tall with dignity.
Just this year, ISTG-Metro Manila has donated nearly 65,000 bras, pads, and tampons to 10 different social service organizations. Beneficiaries included victims of the Parola, Tondo and Metro Manila fires, orphans, and frontline workers fighting coronavirus.
“Menstruation doesn’t stop when a woman is facing hardship,” says Denise Fabella, affiliate director of ISTG-Metro Manila. “Menstruation doesn’t stop when the world is in a crisis. We’re doing all that we can to aid menstruating people across Metro Manila.”
The group plans to donate to college students stranded without menstrual products at their universities, as well as to Kaisa Ka, an organization that serves underprivileged women and girls.
Meanwhile, Kimberly-Clark’s feminine hygiene brand Kotex donated 200,000 sanitary pads to non-profit organizations and public hospitals in Metro Manila.
“Access to feminine hygiene products is currently harder due to limitations in mobility, resources, and time. Through our donation, we want to help ensure the accessibility to these necessities so women can safely manage their menstruation with dignity during these trying times,” says Michael Vainio, general manager of Kimberly-Clark Philippines.
Kotex is working with Power In Her Story, a self-identified feminist publishing house that addresses the needs of urban poor women, PWDs, gender-based violence watch groups, day care center workers, and female community leaders. The brand helps provide sanitary pads to the Power In Her Story Collective Caring packs, which are distributed to the most vulnerable towns of the country.
To extend the assistance to other underserved communities in Metro Manila and across the nation, the brand has also partnered with ISTG and Project SMILE.
To assist with the immediate dispatch of products for medical workers in public hospitals, Kotex is working with Frontline Feeders PH.
Products have been delivered to Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, Ospital ng Makati, East Avenue Medical Center, National Children’s Hospital, Valenzuela Medical Hospital, and Taguig Pateros District Hospital.
“A woman’s monthly period shouldn’t add to her worries, especially during this time,” asserts Ann Avellaneda, senior brand manager of Kotex Philippines.