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Chronicle Reporter

OVER 60 underprivileged girls in Emthunzini, Umguza District have benefitted from a sanitary dignity programme which saw each beneficiary receiving a menstrual kit to help manage monthly periods with dignity.

The kits, consisting of a packet of reusable cloth pads, bathing soap, laundry soap as well as two pairs of underwear, were donated last Friday by Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe Trust in partnership with an Australian based Zimbabwean woman, Ms Palermo Moyo.

Moyo celebrated her birthday by fundraising to help the girls.

“To mark my 30th birthday, I was glad to celebrate it by supporting a cause which is really close to my heart, that is, helping to fight period poverty in our world,” said Palermo Moyo.

The sanitary wear distribution took place in Emthunzini, where some young girls said they had never used sanitary pads or any commercial menstrual wear before.

Girls from child-headed families, those who live with their grandparents as well as those who have since dropped out of school due to affordability challenges are some of those who received the menstrual kits.

One of them, a 15-year-old who lives with her grandmother, said her self-esteem was eroded after she was mocked at the community borehole after unwittingly staining her skirt after the makeshift piece of cloth, she was wearing got damp. She said she is no longer comfortable walking in the community as boys call her names.

19-old Nobuhle, who also benefitted from this menstrual dignity programme, thanked Ms Moyo and Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe Trust for coming to their rescue.

“The reusable pads that we were given today can last over three years. This is really a huge relief as most of us girls here do not afford to buy disposable pads on a monthly basis,” she said.

Menstrual hygiene products are basic necessities which are critical for the attainment of the majority of Sustainable Development Goals; and failure to access them violates many fundamental rights and freedoms of girls and women and also affects their ability to stay healthy and participate in society with dignity.

With the economic challenges that Zimbabwe is currently facing during this Covid-19 outbreak, many underprivileged girls and women who menstruate no longer afford sanitary wear, resulting in them desperately resorting to using unhygienic means such as cow dung, soil, rags, socks, tissues, newspapers, and other unhealthy and unsafe means to manage the flow of blood when menstruating; which expose them to health risks, transactional sex and other risky behaviors.

Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe Trust team leader for Bulawayo Chapter, Miss Bianca Moyo said the organisation has been doing its best to reach out to the most vulnerable girls and women with sustainable sanitary products during the lockdown.

“Our organization is supporting underprivileged girls and women in marginalised circumstances to live healthy, dignified and productive lives through provision of free sanitary products and menstrual health education,” said Moyo, adding that they have so far provided free menstrual products such as sanitary wear, underwear, bathing and laundry soaps, pain relievers, among others, to disadvantaged groups of women such as homeless girls living on the streets, female prisoners, female refugees, girls in children’s homes, rural school girls, disabled girls , among others.

Last year, Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe Trust was awarded the 2019 Power Together Global Award (https://bit.ly/2QncVgb) by the Women Leaders Global Forum in partnership with the Government of Iceland, for its work to end period poverty.