cover story
Does any individual truly
appreciate the power they have to
shape the world and the lives of
those around them? Living in a
world with 7 billion other people,
it is easy to think that there is
someone out there with more
knowledge, experience and power
to help improve this world.
BY NATALIE WILLACY-SMITH
Photography: Beinc.
Rochelle Courtenay is the Founder and Face
of Share the Dignity; and she is living proof
that it takes just one woman and one idea to
start a wave of change.
Mother, entrepreneur and self-proclaimed
‘crazy pad lady’ Rochelle Courtenay is a
woman of many skills and talents. A personal
trainer and photographer she never imagined
how quickly she would become an Australian
household name and ambassador for woman.
For most, menstruation is a common and
uncomfortable but brief annoyance; however,
for others it is a traumatising and humiliating
episode. Young girls are missing school
because they cannot access sanitary items,
women using balled up toilet paper from
a public restroom because they can barely
afford to put food on the table let alone buy
a 'luxury item'. Rochelle Courtenay is the
woman behind the campaign and charity that
is aiming to change this.
In 2015, Rochelle read an article online about
homeless women that absolutely astounded
her. When she read that these women had
little to zero access to sanitary items when
they got their period, she was horrified
and unbelieving that this was happening in
Australia, in her very own backyard. This was
not the first article she had read about this
crisis and decided that instead of waiting for
someone else to do something, she would.
She didn’t want to see her daughters reading
the same article on the same issue in 5 or
10 years time. Starting up a collection and
distribution of pads and tampons locally, her
campaign quickly went viral and Share the
Dignity was born.
Women’s Network Magazine
7