From Tuesday, students in Taichung are to get easier access to sanitary products at schools or receive vouchers to buy them at major retail chains in the city, the Taichung Education Bureau said in a statement on Wednesday.
Students with urgent needs can get sanitary products from health centers in the city’s 350 high schools, junior high schools and elementary schools, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, about 10,000 female students from low-income households listed by the city’s department of social welfare or district office and verified by the school as economically disadvantaged would be given two NT$100 vouchers per month to purchase such products, the bureau said.
Photo courtesy of the Taichung Department of Education via CNA
The vouchers can be used at about 1,300 outlets of five retail chains — 7-Eleven, Family Mart, Hi-Life, OK Mart and Taiwan Funcom Supermarket — in the city, it said.
The support plan is funded by a NT$102 million (US$3.25 million) Ministry of Education program to improve access to sanitary products for female students announced in March, the bureau said.
Taichung received NT$11.89 million from the ministry to expand its existing scheme to offer free sanitary products, the bureau said.
The ministry established the program after lawmakers urged it to pay more attention to the issue when reviewing the government budget in November last year.
At the time, lawmakers said that only Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung had such programs in place, some with the help of donations from local businesses.
Following the ministry’s establishment of the subsidy program, Taipei introduced similar measures by issuing the NT$200 vouchers per month to all female students in the city in the same age group as that covered by the Taichung scheme in March, the Taipei Department of Education said.
When the ministry announced the program in March, it said in a statement that its goal was to provide sanitary products at all schools and institutes under its supervision, such as the National Central Library in Taipei.
In the statement, the ministry estimated that 95,000 female students from underprivileged economic backgrounds would benefit from the program.
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