A simple and super important innovation—Sanitary Pad Vending Machines—have made period products more accessible than ever, at no cost! Recently, a team responsible for installing these machines all over the country celebrated how much change has been made, with 128 machines up and running!
South Africa (11 January 2024)—In the fight against period poverty in South Africa, there are many key players making a difference. Celebrating a noteworthy achievement in making menstrual products freely accessible is the MENstruation Foundation team members and the innovative Sanitary Pad Vending/Dispensing Machines.
Thanks to their efforts, several communities of women now have a super easy means to make an already distressing time that much less challenging.
These Sanitary Pad Machines first hopped on Good Things Guy’s radar early last year, where one such machine was said to be bringing a whole lot of peace of mind to the women in the little town of Aurora on the West Coast.
Located in the library’s bathroom, the Machine made evident what is possible when a little innovation and a lot of care join forces. Stocked monthly with locally-manufactured and compostable sanitary towels, women receive tokens to access the pads at no cost; ensuring that they have sufficient supply throughout the year.
By May, across three provinces (the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape) 19 schools were added as recipients of the machines, which catered to the needs of well over 4 000 young women.
Beyond imperative wellbeing and dignity, access to sanitary products is also directly linked to educational prosperity. This was evident at Salt River High School, where, thanks to a different body of period poverty fighters at the CORA Project, the pass rate went up due to easy access of menstrual products.
As for the Sanitary Pad Machines, a handful soon became an army of awesomeness. Recently, the MENstruation Foundation got to look back on 2023 as a fantastic year of growth and shared the incredible news that 128 Sanitary Pad Dispensing Machines were installed in 2023!
This is roughly halfway to the Foundation’s short-term goal of 250 machines, which gives us all a lot of hope for the new year toward the mission that is kicking period poverty to the curb, once and for all.
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