In the first meeting of the new youth district council, the young people thought about how free hygiene articles could be provided in the school toilets of the district of Dachau. The body, newly elected in November, consists of 65 councillors, determined by elections or appointments from secondary schools and youth organisations.
The district youth councils are schoolchildren and young people from the district who want to contribute their ideas and project proposals for the region. These will then be discussed and decided with District Administrator Stefan Löwl (CSU). The committee has an annual budget of 5,000 euros to implement the measures. In addition, the young people decide on projects and applications of the “Partnership for Democracy”, for which 10,000 euros are planned.
In order to formulate the first applications, four committees were formed in the constitutive meeting at the beginning of December: with the topics of art-culture-leisure time, promotion of democracy-inclusion-integration, sustainability and mobility-digitization. The district youth councilors also work on their projects and ideas between the two or three meetings a year.
The request to provide free hygiene articles in school toilets has recently been submitted again and again. This was approved at the meeting. The applicants, the “Dachauer Schüler*innen Büro” (DS*B), had previously researched which providers of dispensers for tampons and sanitary napkins could be considered. In a previous survey, 97 percent of SMV representatives agreed that there was an urgent need for action on this issue.
Löwl said he supports the project. But now it is up to the schools and communities to submit the respective applications to the office of the district administrator so that they can be approved and, ideally, the schools can be equipped with free hygiene articles for the 2023/24 school year.
In principle, the youth district council addresses its applications to the district council. An application has already been made there on the subject of feminine hygiene in schools, which is currently being examined by the administration of the district office for feasibility. In addition, the district administration and the respective district schools will test fit a women’s toilet with a dispenser for feminine hygiene articles.