Members of the Jersey City Rotary Club last week packaged 240 bags of feminine hygiene products, which were to be distributed to one high school and to non-profit organizations assisting young women and girls in need.
With the service project taking place during the Club’s meeting at the Zinburger Wine & Burger Bar last Thursday evening, 11 members and three guests prepared the bags with Cynthia Vazquez and Eiko La Boria of The Flow Initiative, leading the project. Some 100 of the bags will be distributed to at least one high school while the others will be donated to non-profit organizations that assist girls and young women in need.
A similar project was carried out on March 21, with Cynthia writing that the Club’s efforts in promoting The Flow Initiative will be an ongoing service project. Writing on Facebook, Cynthia explained that “Period Poverty is a lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, hand washing facilities, and/ or waste management largely due to financial and socio-economic constraints.”
In her discussion of the project, Cynthia added: “Currently, 25 million women live below the poverty line, yet menstrual products are not covered under any government assistance program, including health insurance, Medicaid or SNAP. One in five girls will miss school due to a lack of access to pads.”
“If a girl skips school every time she has her period” Cynthia writes” this puts her back 145 days behind her fellow male classmates.”