We don’t just have our periods on International Women’s Day. This flow runs every month, every year – whether we have the sanitary items to ease the period or not.
In the UK, basic necessities are granted a tax exemption. Yet tampons and other sanitary items are not granted this privilege – they are currently taxed at 5%, under the bracket of a “non-essential luxury goods”.
“we’ll have to continue to pay up until 2022. We might be bleeding and queuing for Black Panther, the sequel by then…”
So, when we bleed we have to pay the “The Tampon Tax”. And we’ll have to continue to pay up until the promise to lift the tax comes into effect in… 2022. We might be bleeding and queuing for Black Panther, the sequel by then.
For those of us on the pay roll, and still struggling to pay the ridiculous costs for a little bit of tissue – think of the homeless women, refugees, and young girls in families living below the poverty line. Homeless shelters get an allowance every year to buy items like condoms, but still nothing for sanitary products. Sexual health clinics provide schools with contraception – yet you really have to hunt for a pad or tampon in the nurse’s office. Young people who have periods miss school because of the avoidable “nuisance” of their period.
The @bad.canteen and @greatness.official girls have put together this Crowdfunder project – TAMPONS ARE NOT A LUXURY – to raise money for two charities : Bloody Good Period who gives menstrual supplies to asylum seekers, refugees and people who can’t afford them; and The Homeless Period, who donates and provides menstrual supplies to homeless shelters in the UK.
We are also urging you to sign all these petitions – just to be “extra” and “aggressive”. Pressure needs to be consistently put onto these institutions to speed up the abolition of ”tampon tax”, and for them do the essential work in the meantime so that issues surrounding menstrual products are given the recognition and status they warrant.
- Sign this petition to help end period poverty, asking Procter and Gamble to donate a small but significant proportion of sanitary products to UK homeless shelters
- Sign this petition to help speed up the abolition of the “tampon tax”.
- This petition is asking supermarkets to drop their prices on menstrual products by 5% until the tax is abolished
Please donate to this Crowdfunder and sign the petitions above! All the funds we raise will be distributed to our chosen charities as mentioned above.
TAMPONS ARE NOT A LUXURY.
