Homeless Women Often Can't Afford Bras. So This Advocate Donated Over 1,000 Of Them

Homeless Women Often Can't Afford Bras. So This Advocate Donated Over 1,000 Of Them



Homeless shelters often get loads of clothing donations, but nowhere near enough undergarments, which leaves women in need without bras and feeling uncomfortable, ashamed and undignified.

“There’s still a stigma around periods and bras. It’s taboo and sexualized,” Dana Marlowe, an advocate for homeless women, told The Huffington Post. “Bras are so essential for women: for health, self-esteem, employment and more.”

After losing a significant amount of weight recently, Marlowe, a principal partner at a consulting firm, was excited to purchase new clothes, but was despondent about the amount of money she’d have to spend on new bras. And when Marlowe learned that women in need often go completely without undergarments because they can’t afford them and they don’t typically get donated, she launched a collection drive this past summer.

Those efforts paid off this week when Marlowe dropped off more than 1,000 bras to Thrive DC, a Washington, D.C., group that works to prevent and end homelessness.

“I lamented the cost of new ones and the good quality of my existing, now ill-fitting bras,” Marlowe said. “Then it clicked, here I was, a woman with a comfortable lifestyle, complaining.”



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/homeless-women-cant-afford-bras-so-this-advocate-donated-over-1000-of-them_5637c7e3e4b0631799135285