The Dignity NZ team, from left: co-founder Miranda Hitchings, Hester Reich, co-founder Jacinta Gulasekharam, and Sophie
MacDonald.
15 November 2018
Wellington startup Dignity has reached an impressive milestone just days before its second anniversary: 10,000 pads and
tampons donated to school girls around the country.
Dignity was founded by Wellington entrepreneurs Jacinta Gulasekharam and Miranda Hitchings two years ago today.
Just 21-years-old at the time, they launched the business while studying at Victoria University to bring an end to
period poverty in New Zealand high schools.
“Period sanitary products cost women an average of $15,000 throughout their lives,” Hitchings says.
“The cost for many high school students or their families is simply too much of a burden and that means many girls
aren’t getting the sanitary products they need; some even have to resort to using toilet paper.
“That can lead to traumatic experiences, social anxiety, and in some cases, it can lead to girls skipping school
altogether.”
The Dignity model is simple: businesses such as ANZ, Xero, and Flick Electric buy organic tampons and pads for their
female staff and for every box bought, Dignity donates one to a school for girls in need.
It now provides period products to girls across 50 schools throughout New Zealand and just handed out its 10,000th box
to Kaitaia College this week.
“We’re on a mission to make period sanitary products completely free for every women in New Zealand,” Gulasekharam says.
“Eventually, we’d like to have a model in which all working women have their sanitary products paid for by their
employer, and in turn, all high school girls throughout New Zealand have theirs donated to them.
“It’s a one-for-one business model which could eradicate period poverty in New Zealand.”
At the school level, the tampons and pads are made available to the girls who need them in a discreet way such as at
reception or with the school nurse.
“This is a wonderful initiative which is making our girls feel more feminine, cleaner, and well-cared for,” a school
nurse at Papakura High School says.
“We would have at least 60 girls using them now instead of toilet paper.”
“For too long, period health has been a taboo subject even though this is a health issue which half the population goes
through,” Gulasekharam says.
“Dignity is putting an end to the taboo and the harm that period poverty is causing throughout our country. We’re 10,000
boxes in, but we’re just getting started.”
ENDS