Knowsley-based registered charity the Big Help Project (Knowsley Foodbank) is working to eradicate period poverty in Knowsley, with the launch of a new scheme to make free sanitary products available to women and girls across the borough.
The new scheme, which officially launched on November 5th last year, will see sanitary products made available, free of charge, across the Big Help Projects network of Foodbanks and Community Shops. The sanitary products will be available to anyone who needs them, as often as required, without any need for a voucher or referral system.
Foodbank Manager Sue Torpey said “It is a national disgrace that, in the fifth richest economy in the world, there are women and girls who cannot afford sanitary protection. For too long this issue has been viewed as exclusively ‘female’, but the fact is that every woman or girl who cannot afford protection is someone’s mother, sister or daughter. The End Knowsley Period Poverty scheme’s aim is simple: to ensure that no woman or girl in Knowsley suffers the indignity, inconvenience and risk to health of having no access to sanitary protection.”
The Big Help Project is asking individuals and businesses to show their support by adding donations of sanitary products to donations of food for Knowsley Foodbank. Donations can be made at the donation points at Tesco Prescot and Asda Huyton, and are also welcomed at any of the ten distribution centres across the borough, and at the Big Help Project’s main office at Link Road in Huyton.
The Big Help Project was founded as Knowsley Foodbank in 2011, and now offers a range or additional services including Jubilee Debt Advice, Baby Basics Knowsley and Next Steps employability support. For more information about the Big Help Project, or find out about supporting the End Knowsley Period Poverty scheme, please contact the office on 0151 482 6089 or got to www.big-help.info