Jane on a mission to end period poverty in Mid Ulster

IT is becoming less of a taboo subject now but two years ago when a young Clonmore woman made ‘period poverty’ one of her student manifesto commitments, it was a relatively new concept.

 

Jane Molloy (20), a former student at South West College, not only highlighted the issue but also succeeded in ensuring that sanitary products were readily available for free in the bathrooms and student services areas.

 

And by end of her term as student governor at the Dungannon campus, the packs had also been brought into the Enniskillen, Cookstown and Omagh sites.

 

Today, Jane is still working to ensure that women in need in Mid Ulster have access to such products, whatever their financial situation.

 

Over the past few months, she has delivered around 400 period packs – containing sanitary products and toiletries – for women who are experiencing homelessness, poverty or personal upheaval.

 

The packs have been handed over to food banks and organisations including the Depaul charity in Dungannon which provides temporary accommodation for the homeless, Mid Ulster Women’s Aid and the Vineyard Church in Dungannon.

And a visit to some of these groups reinforced the importance of the donations.

 

“There are people who have nothing,” she said. “One person in Women’s Aid told me there are some women who arrive there and they are lucky to have their shoes on.”

 

As a single mum to three-year-old Donál, Jane has also been keenly award of the financial struggles of some lone mothers.

She said, “I am so lucky in that I have my family supporting me. But I know of girls who get pregnant at a young age and they don’t have the same support network.

 

“If you have to choose between feeding your child or buying yourself a pack of sanitary pads, you are going to prioritise your child.”

 

Jane, who set up The Homeless Period Mid Ulster, a branch of the Belfast campaign group, also wants to ensure that young women especially have access to information about periods.

 

“From an educational point of view, when I was at school, it was something embarrassing you didn’t really speak of it, and you dealt with it yourself,” she said.

 

“In the UK, a quarter of girls will spend up to a month off school in a year because they have insufficient funds or because of pains  ….in terms of grades, socialising and mental health, it has a detrimental effect,” she said.

 

“When I first started talking about period poverty, people didn’t realise how much of an issue it   was.”