Mersey Burrows talks to The New Zealand Herald about period poverty after a survey by KidsCan found a huge number of women are often unable to afford sanitary items.
When a charity founder donated a period product package worth $285 to a family in need, she never expected to find those products listed for sale online just one hour later.
It left her “heartbroken”, because it wasn’t the first time someone had taken advantage of her donations, shesaid.
Yessenia Sandoval, 46, runs a charity called Endo Warriors Aotearoa, which educates people about endometriosis and menstruation.
The charity used to donate period products to individual people who couldn’t afford them, but now focuses on helping schools and organisations.
When Sandoval was tagged in a Facebook post from a woman who was desperately asking for period products for her niece, she made an exception.
Sandoval put together a large pack which included eight pairs of period underwear, six packets of pads, 12 boxes of tampons, wet bags and period togs.
Her intention was to provide enough products to sustain their entire household for a while, she said.
She gave her address to the woman who made the post and explained how all the products were meant to be used when she came to pick them up.
An hour later, Sandoval saw the entire lot put up for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $35.
The Facebook Marketplace listing which shows products donated by Sandoval for sale.
Sandoval told the woman she was “absolutely disappointed” and made a social media post telling anyone who saw the Marketplace listing the products had come from her charity.
She said the woman seemed apologetic, claimed her niece made the listing without her knowledge, and eventually took it down.
Sandoval said she gave the woman the benefit of the doubt.
“This is what makes it so hard for people on the internet to trust other people,” she said.
Sandoval runs workshops at schools to educate students about menstruation.
Sandoval said people have previously stolen boxes of products and intercepted donations she had shipped off to organisations that needed them.
“One year we literally lost thousands of dollars worth of stuff,” she said.
