○ Gyeonggi Province announces free sanitary pads available at 225 public facilities
– Information provided via Gyeonggi Province’s official website
– Free sanitary pads available from vending machines or related personnel

Gyeonggi Province has posted an online list of 225 public facilities from which free sanitary pads are available to anyone in urgent need.

On December 15, the Gyeonggi Women’s Vision Center announced that a list had been posted on Gyeonggi Province’s website (www.gg.go.kr/contents/contents.do?ciIdx=1358&menuId=3162) of 225 public facilities where public vending machines for free sanitary pads have been installed.

This program is a follow-up measure to the Gyeonggi Province Ordinance on Support for Female Hygiene Products in Public Facilities, which was enacted in July 2020 in the wake of the ‘insole sanitary pad’ incident (in which an underprivileged adolescent girl was found to be using shoe insoles and tissue instead of sanitary pads).

Since the enactment of the ordinance, public facilities have utilized their own management funds to install vending machines that provide sanitary pads for free.

To date, sanitary pad vending machines have been installed at 225 public sites that include 42 facilities such as the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, affiliated public institutions, direct or affiliated agencies, 71 institutions, and 154 libraries and cultural/welfare facilities located in 14 cities/counties including Goyang and Seongnam. Including facilities related to Gyeonggi Province, public sanitary pad vending machines have been installed throughout 28 cities and counties with the exception of Gunpo, Uiwang and Gwacheon.

Anyone in need of sanitary pads can use the public vending machines to get sanitary pads for free at public facilities such as the Ansan Sangroksu Gymnasium and Paju City Library. Three types of vending machines, primarily found in women’s restrooms, have been installed: a ‘vending machine type’ with a lever to turn; a ‘coin type’ into which the user inserts coins; and the ‘related personnel type’ where the user asks onsite staff for free sanitary pads. Detailed addresses, available vending machine types and personnel contact information for each public facility are available on Gyeonggi Province’s website.

By the second half of 2022, Gyeonggi Province plans to expand the public sanitary pad program to the remaining 17 cities and counties which have yet to join the program.

Kim Hae-ryeon, Head of the Gyeonggi Women’s Vision Center, said, “The program has been introduced to ensure the basic rights of residents,” adding, “We will strive to make sanitary pads easily accessible to all residents.”