The Collie community have this year been one of the the biggest supporters of the Share the Dignity, Dignity Drive campaign.
Share the Dignity volunteer Peta Palmer said the Collie community were very generous with their donations.
“Down here it’s often a bit of a struggle with donations so the numbers are very low compared to metro areas,” she said.
“I collect for Collie, Harvey, Waroona, a couple of locations in Bunbury, Boyup Brook, Manjimup, Bridgetown, and Busselton and Margaret River and the biggest counts were in Collie this time around.”
“The Collie community really came on board. The last collection was in April and in total I only got about 30 items donated from the two drop-off points in Collie.
“During this drive Collie donated 69 packs of pads 47 packs of tampons, 24 menstrual cups, and 6 incontinence pads.”
Ms Palmer said everything that was donated locally will stay in Collie. “The packs will be delivered to the local branch of St Vincent de Paul and the Collie Family Centre,” she said.
Ms Palmer said sanitary items collected in Collie were donated to women in Collie battling homelessness and domestic violence. Drop- off points for this year’s Share the Dignity drive were located at Terry White Chemmart chemist and Woolworths.
Ms Palmer said this year was the first time she had seen menstrual cups donated.
“I have never seen the menstrual cups donated down here, ever and I’ve got 24 cups which is fantastic,” she said.
“It’s to get women’s attention for them because when I talk about them a lot of women don’t know what they are.
“When you thinking of a homeless woman, having to carry around pads and tampons then ways of disposing of them and hygiene-wise, as appose to a menstrual cup they can use, they can go into a public toilet and wash and re-use it.
“It’s reusable over and over so they don’t have to worry for month to month what they are going to be using. Hopefully next year a lot more people will donate them (menstrual cups).”
To find out more about the Share The Dignity Campaign or to volunteer go to www.sharethedignity.com.au