Today in training we had a session about sexual health (different sessions for the men and women). In the women's session the issue of Peace Corps not supplying or paying for tampons or other sanitary supplies came up, with us volunteers of course being frustrated because they are extremely expensive and hard to get here, and it really cuts into our budgets if we have to use our small allowances (which are no bigger than the men's allowances) to buy them. The official Peace Corps response was that we could get our families to ship us supplies from the US, but nobody felt that this was much of a solution since Peace Corps is supposed to provide for all our health care and other needs while we are over here.
So...we are thinking of starting a petition, writing some letters, etc. I think I'm going to get a name for myself as a unionizer/activist, but I'm okay with that. Peace Corps could really use some official means for volunteers to bring up concerns as a group with staff, headquarters, and the larger government.
We'll see what happens.
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