For Mildura’s Kim Long, volunteering has been a major part of her life. After suffering through post-natal depression following the birth of her second child, she was inspired even more to give back to the community and help those less fortunate. Ashlee Falvo sat down with Kim to find out what her charity work means to her, how she juggles it with motherhood and what motivates her.
IN many households, tampons, sanitary pads and the like are hidden away in bathroom cupboards, out of sight of the males in the house.
But in Kim Long’s home, that’s far from the case.
“When I collect products for Share the Dignity, there can be hundreds of tampon packets all over the lounge room floor,” Kim laughs.
“My sons know what they are, they know what they are used for and they also know how important they are to women who are less fortunate.
“They come along with me when I do the donation drop-offs to various charities around town, so they see the impact it has on people.”
Kim has been a volunteer with Share the Dignity, which helps collect women’s hygiene and sanitary products for those local organisations including Zoe Support, the Salvation Army, Mallee Family Care, Haven Home Safe, MASP and the Department of Human Services since 2017.
She also volunteers for the Nappy Collective, gathering nappies for families who are suffering financial hardship since 2018.
“Through my work with Kangatraining Mildura, I got to know a lot of mums in the region, and I started to realise the struggles many of them face in silence,” Kim says.
“Having gone though post-natal depression myself, I suppose I could recognise the signs and see when other mums were having a hard time.”
Kim says while social media can help mums connect, it can also have a negative impact by setting unrealistic expectations.
“Social media is saturated with perfect mums with perfect babies in perfect, clean houses, and when that’s what you see everyday, you start to think that that’s the standard,” she says.
“That can actually be a bit of a dangerous thing because it’s unrealistic.
“The reality of motherhood is not all shiny and perfect; it’s messy, it’s sleep deprivation, it’s pooey nappies, it’s isolating, it’s expensive and it can be a difficult road to navigate.
“That’s why it’s important as a community to support new mums.”
Kim says her way of doing this is through her charity work.
“I just wanted to get involved, to do something to help on top of Kangatraining, which provided a getaway for mums and a bit of ‘me time’, so I guess that’s where the volunteering all started from,” she says.
“I think people assume that things like homelessness and severe financial hardship are a city problem, that people in Mildura aren’t affected.
“But the reality is, we have local mums buying bread to make sandwiches for their kids instead of tampons for themselves, we have mums sleeping in cars – these things are unfortunately happening in our community, under our noses.”
Kim says the key to juggling her charity work with raising her two young sons is to get them involved in the process.
“I want my boys to grow up knowing that there are people less fortunate than them in this world, in our community and to be inspired to help,” Kim says.
“I think having them involved in what I’m doing, explaining it all to them from a young age, having them be a part of the process will help them become balanced, conscious young men – that’s the hope, anyway.”
