The Eve Project of SouthCentral Kentucky
When a friend shared a story with her that she had heard on NPR about homeless women and how they deal with their periods, Lee Young immediately felt God telling her she could help with this situation. “I was struck by the fact that I had never even thought about the difficulty homeless women face in this situation. I have thought about food, clothing, shelter and saw ways to help in those areas, but never thought about them having periods and no supplies. It was that very night that I decided to make a difference and start collecting items for the homeless women in our area.”
The Eve Project of SouthCentral Kentucky was founded by Lee Young (founder/president) and Allie Young (co-founder). They collect feminine hygiene products for women and girls in Bowling Green and surrounding counties that are either homeless or underserved. The feminie hygiene products (tampons, pads, panty liners) are placed in nice zipper pouches so that the women/girls can be discreet and each pouch holds what we hope will be enough supplies for one month.
“We hope to help put an end to the stigma of a women's menstrual cycle. These products are not covered under any government program as they are not considered a necessity. Many women can not afford the products and therefore go without. There are also school age girls who miss school every month due to the lack of product and we home to eliminate that as well,” Lee adds.
“Our first year, 2015, we made just over 100 pouches and distributed them to organizations working with the homeless. We have grown to where we send over 600 bags to many different organizations. As people heard about our program, they shared stories about high school girls and other underserved communities so our goal expanded to fit the needs of the community. Donations have been distributed to Hotel, Inc,, Room in the Inn, State Street UMC Food Pantry, Warren County Public Library, The Foundry and school Family Resource Centers throughout Bowling Green,Warren, Logan and Edmonson County.”
The Eve Project’s goal for the future is to ensure that no woman has to have her work or schooling disrupted because of a lack of feminine products. “Ideally, we would like to see them covered under the SNAP program and to be tax free as a necessity, but until then, we will continue to provide items to those in our community who need them.”
The biggest obstacle they face is getting the word out. So far our greatest method is through word of mouth. We were blessed to have Ashton Jones do a story on WBKO about the project and that helped raise awareness in the community.
We are always in need of more supplies. There are so many options out there, but I have found that compact tampons, thin pads and panty liners are the best. We also need zipper pouches, and we do take monetary donations (I send receipts to show proof of purchase).
If people contact me through email or Facebook, I am happy to arrange a time to meet or even share my address so they can drop things off on my porch.
Lee can be contacted via
Facebook: The Eve Project of SouthCentral Kentucky
Email: leeyoung913@gmail.com
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