Ontario Women's Collective

What: The goal of the newcomer health initiative is to support individuals with their menstrual and sexual health. More specifically, we want to help increase accessibility of such products to newcomers to Canada, whose financial status makes them particularly vulnerable to the consequences of lacking menstrual resources, such as social isolation, school absences, and missing work, as reported by the United Way.

In their words: “Newcomers are more susceptible to financial challenges and the high cost of menstrual/hygiene products makes it difficult for them to purchase these products; as a result, newcomers are vulnerable to period poverty. Success for this initiative would be to help alleviate this financial burden by delivering approximately 50 care packages with pads/tampons, hand sanitizer, toothbrushes and toothpaste to newcomers in Ottawa with the help of The Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre.”