BROWNSVILLE — Daniela Gonzalez, a Brownsville resident, with the help of Friendship of Women, collected more than 11,000 individually wrapped feminine hygiene products to distribute to women in need.
Gonzalez, who also is a student at Veterans Memorial Early College High School, started the Menstruation Matters campaign in January and collected donations since then.
She received donations from her family, local organizations and fellow students who received extra credit from their teachers if they brought a donation.
“We did get a lot of our donations from auntflow.org and they had Friendship of Women on their website, and people from 42 states ended up donating online through an online subscription,” Gonzalez said.
The purpose of Menstruation Matters is to maintain empowerment, health and dignity of women and girls through education and feminine hygiene products, Gonzalez said.
“In Brownsville, it was pretty much the lack of awareness, really,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a nationwide issue, but here in the Valley there’s a lot of machismo and unfortunately a lot of sexism, and it’s that lack of awareness that women need (Menstruation Matters).”
Another reason why Gonzalez started accepting donations is because she felt that it was unfair that most states tax feminine hygiene products.
“They tax feminine hygiene products as luxury items and that is a separate tax, not just a regular tax you see on essentials like toilet paper,” Gonzalez said. “That, in itself, is sexist because that’s saying it’s a luxury for us to have products that we need. Most women menstruate, and saying that it’s a luxury for us to be able to have that is not right.”
Originally, Gonzalez’s goal for the number of donations was 4,000. She was really happy to find out she exceeded her expectations. Gonzalez decided to give her donations to Friendship of Women, the Good Neighbor Settlement House and the Ozonam Center.
Berta Ramirez, an Ozonam Center caseworker, was really pleased to take plenty of the feminine hygiene products back to the shelter. Currently, the shelter is home to about 30 women.
“This is really nice. We do need it. We have a lot of teenagers, also,” Ramirez said.
Good Neighbor Director Jack White said the shelter helps about 600 homeless women per year.
“ They are often really in great need of support. So I welcome this opportunity to make this relationship, and keep up with Friendship of Women and provide these products,” White said.
