When Nadya Okamoto’s mom lost her job, the family was technically homeless, although they lived with a friend. Suddenly, her bus rides to Catlin Gabel, where she’s a scholarship student, took two hours and brought her into contact with homeless women.
Once while waiting for a late bus, Okamoto encountered a crying woman who whispered the word “period.” Okamoto took all the tampons and pads out of her backpack and gave them to the woman who didn’t know what a tampon was.
Women without resources find themselves using socks, toilet paper, cardboard or plastic for their periods. The resulting chaffing and rashes can lead to serious infections.
Yet Okamoto says sanitary napkins and tampons are rarely collected as donations or mentioned on lists of needs. “Governments fund condoms for men who have a choice. No woman has a choice about menstruation but it’s not receiving any funding.”
With a $2,500 grant from ANNpower, a partnership between ANN Inc. -- the parent company of Ann Taylor and the Loft -- and Vital Voices Global Partnership, Camions of Care was born.
She was able to create packets that cost $2 each and last for an average six-day cycle with nine tampons, four maxi pads and five to eight panty liners along with instructions.
At first, boys were reluctant to volunteer, but now make up half the executive team of her all-high school volunteer staff.
“It was a topic I hadn’t had any experience with,” said Vince Forand, operations director.
During a drive to collect feminine hygiene products at Catlin Gabel, one guy was uncomfortable looking at the bins and asked them to “put a lid on it,” Okamoto said. Now “our most devoted volunteer staff is that guy.”
As distribution manager, Drake Warren spends a couple hours every Saturday, his truck loaded with tampons, delivering packets to social service organizations in Portland, mailing them to South Dakota and Guatemala. “It still makes me uncomfortable,” he said. “I’ve had my moments where I blush.”
Organizations serving the homeless need to include feminine hygiene products on their shelves alongside food and toilet paper, not behind the counter where women have to ask for them, said Giselle Cohen, development director. Funding remains a concern. “Every time a donation comes through it feels like a miracle,” Cohen said.
Okamoto wants to take the nonprofit one step further and expand into India and Nicaragua where girls typically don’t go to school when they have their periods, often ending their educations. “The gender inequality ceiling for girls begins with their menstrual cycle.”
She’s also helping an organization in Toronto set up something similar because even in Canada with national health insurance, feminine hygiene isn’t covered. “It’s part of being human. It’s part of being a mammal,” she said.
What’s the impact of this work on Okamoto herself? “Listening to women’s stories spurred my personal growth. It was therapeutic for me.”
Jan can be reached at [email protected].
