Community Food Initiatives North-East (CFINE), an Aberdeen-based charity and social enterprise welcome the positive outcomes of the first vote on the Bill that was brought forward by MSP Monica Lennon. The proposed legislation aims to tackle period poverty by making free sanitary products available to all in Scotland.
CFINE have been an advocate of tackling period poverty for years and the charity is pleased to see the unanimous support of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government for this ground-breaking legislation at stage one.
Dave Simmers, CEO of CFINE said:
“We are delighted to see Scotland taking the lead in ending period poverty by providing access to free sanitary products for everyone.
“CFINE, which operates FareShare Grampian, is proud to have worked with The Scottish Government on making free sanitary products accessible since 2017. We look forward to continuing and further developing this partnership.
“An important element of this initiative is challenging the stigma around menstruation, which is a natural function. The lack of appropriate protection is a concerning health and wellbeing issue.”
The Scottish Government asked CFINE to operate and coordinate the pilot scheme of the Access to Free Sanitary Products project in 2017/18. The pilot was extremely successful with over 1,000 people signing up to receive sanitary products.
The pilot found that accessing sanitary products had presented difficulties in the past for two-thirds of participants. Partly based on the success of the pilot, the Scottish Government had allocated funding to roll out the distribution of free sanitary products to those in need widely across Scotland, including Grampian, via the FareShare network and in educational institutions. Scotland was the first country in the world to roll out such a national scheme.
