Pictured: Re-usable sanitary pads – a cheap alternative for
the marginalised girls
HARARE
- A shocking report by the Integrated Sustainable Livelihoods (ISL) has
revealed that due to lack of resources, some young girls in Zimbabwe are using pieces of cloth, newspapers, cow dung and
tissues as sanitary ware during their monthly menstruation.
The report was released by Lifa Methie, Director of the ISL in
Zimbabwe. ISL is collaborating with the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Ministry of Women's Affairs,
Gender and Community Development in an effort to improve the reproductive
health of marginalised women through provision of re-usable sanitary pads
which are safe alternatives to what the girls are currently using.
Risitseng Rukasha, Projects Officer for the sanitary pads project, said buying
pads was considered a less priority by the vulnerable and poor populations
who were more concerned about putting food on the table. "During this
period, they not only experience the characteristic abdominal pain and mood
alterations, but also have to be absent from school for fear of odours
emanating from newspapers and rags they use to contain their menstrual
flow," says Rukasha.
An average pack of sanitary pads costs US$2 and this implies that a family
with four girls needs US$8, which is normally beyond the reach of poor
households. Rukasha added that even female students were finding it a
challenge to afford sanitary ware. According to ISL, the average woman will
use 16 800 pads or tampons in her lifetime. The organisation has also
dispelled the myth that menstruation is a sickness but a natural physical
process. It said that women's blood was not diseased and dirty but it was
just a harmless by-product of a biological event.
ISL trains women on how to make re-usable sanitary pads for their own use and
as an income generating project.
Rukasha revealed that her organisation had distributed 1 000 pads to rural
girls in Bindura Secondary Schools including another 1 000 to disadvantaged
women in Nyabira and Mhondoro. The organisation targets disadvantaged women
and schools.
She added that ISL had also undertaken a validation exercise where they
invited the Ministry of Women Affairs,Gender and Community Development,UNFPA
and other NGOs to pre-test the re-usable pads and give suggestions before
taking it to the rural areas. According to Naome Chimbetete, Executive
Director of the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN), due to
lack of gender budgeting in the fiscus, young girls were affected since
resources were not properly challenged to address issues which affect them.
She said that the issue concerning sanitary pads for young girls should be
taken in the context of a sexual and reproductive health rights one. She said
that such issues should be addressed through gender sensitive budgeting in the
fiscus. There is a call from women to scrap taxation on sanitary products to
make them more affordable to the under-priviledged young women.
Minister of Finance Tendai Biti is reported to have remarked that taxing
sanitary ware was necessary due to low cotton prices. Due to low capacity
utilisation in the manufacturing sector, many companies have not been finding
it easy to venture into manufacturing following Zimbabwe's economic decline.
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