Groups team up for women in need

MIRIAM LITWIN

EMPOWERING Our Community Ballarat has collaborated with the Nappy Collective and a local Rotary Club to ensure women fleeing domestic violence have access to baby hygiene products.

“Many women escaping domestic violence have to rely on Centrelink payments and nappies are expensive,” said DV Collective CEO Kylie Johanson.

“There is a term called nappy stress which is when women can’t afford nappies and are rationing the number of times they change nappies, or they are repurposing them.

“With the cost of nappies, they are seen as a luxury.”

The Nappy Collective is a national organisation, and the hope is the collaborative effort will bring the initiative into Ballarat.

More information about the effort and others will be shared at the Empowering Our Community Ballarat launch event set for Tuesday 26 March from 6pm at the Goods Shed.

“The idea behind the initiative is to collaborate with existing domestic violence support services such as the Nappy Collective and then coordinating and managing initiatives such as a nappy drive,” said Ms Johanson.

“This will empower the community to get involved in a product drive.”

At the event, the attendees can sign up to volunteer their time with Empowering Our Community Ballarat.

Then in May, the community will be asked to come together to collect and distribute nappies.

“The DV Collective will run a number of events in Ballarat We are looking at three activations per calendar year,” said Ms Johanson.

“One of those activations will be the nappy drive which will launch in the month of May.

“The collaboration is an important part of how we are going to collect the nappies.”