Podcasts

Digging Deeper | How Shepparton has been helping in the fight to stop period poverty

By Nicola Ceccato

Dec 4, 2024

CEO and founder of Share the Dignity Rochelle Courtenay spoke to the News about all things period. Photo by Contributed

Period poverty, Shepparton’s efforts in reducing it and the rollout of free tampon and pad vending machines across Victoria - these are some of the discussions featured in this week’s Digging Deeper podcast.

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Share the Dignity is a non-for-profit organisation that educates and advocates against period poverty and distributes period products to people who menstruate.

They recently just wrapped up the collection of their Christmas fundraiser, ‘It’s in the bag’, which encouraged people to donate handbags filled with period and other sanitary products for those struggling to afford them.

The Shepparton Bunnings was just one of the many Bunnings’ around the country acting as a collection point for the bags.

Bunnings employees Sarah Batho, Sharon Alberts, Karen Laffan, Maria Vagelatos.Bunnings promoting the Share the Dignity campaign. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

So, alongside the Victorian Government’s recent announcement of phase one of placing free tampon and pad dispensing vending machine across the state, The News’ Nicola Ceccato sat down with Share the Dignity CEO Rochelle Courtenay for a chat about all things period.

Rochelle talked on what ‘It’s in the bag’ is about, how Shepparton’s collection numbers fared, how period poverty can affect those in regional/rural areas and the state rollout of period product machines.