Charity formed by college kids provides homeless women with hygiene products

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Adrian Aguinaldo and Amanda Higashiguchi help the homeless in a way that’s different from other efforts.

“A lot of people think to donate food, to donate money, to give cash to homeless people. But they never think to give them a tampon if it’s a woman, because it’s so overlooked. You don’t consider that,” Higashiguchi said.

At the height of the pandemic, the college friends formed a charitable organization called Wahine Kokua.

Through financial donations, the pair purchases female hygiene products and then package and deliver them to women in homeless shelters and outreach programs.

“I just wanted to do something for the community, basically, because there’s a lot of people that don’t have the privileges to have simple things such as tampons or pads,” Aguinaldo said.

The pair started their project in June. In just six months, they’ve given away more than 2,500 packs of feminine products. The women who get them are very thankful.

“It’s really heartwarming and it really touches my heart, and it makes this very much worth it,” Aguinaldo said.

When they shop for the products, clerks wonder why they’re buying in bulk.

“Everyone is like, ‘What’s going on?’ A lot of people think it’s for a science project. But we’re like, ‘No. It’s for the homeless,’” Higashiguchi said.

As the outreach grows, they want to work with more homeless shelters.

“We’ve done a lot, so far. But we haven’t got to all of them yet. We hope to do that this winter,” Higashiguchi said.

To learn more about Wahine Kokua, or to donate to their mission go to WahineKokua.com.

“There’s different ways to donate. We have PayPal and Venmo. We also have an Amazon wish list where you could directly buy the pads and tampons and the wipes,” Aguinaldo said.

The organization’s email address is WahineKokua808@gmail.com.

Copyright 2020 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.