Zimpapers Logo

Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, [email protected] 

WHILE many people use birthdays for self-spoiling and showering their loved ones with gifts, two Bulawayo young women have decided to dedicate their birthday month to pooling resources towards restoring the dignity of less privileged girls. 

The initiative began in 2020 ,when Miss Bongiwe Nkomo and Miss Melda Sibanda decided to establish “Hygiene for Girls Foundation”, an organisation that distributes over 3 650 packets of pads to learners in Bulawayo and South Africa. 

The duo met some 12 years ago and became friends while they lived in Bulawayo’s Emakhandeni suburb. 

From life experiences, Nkomo and Sibanda noted the serious challenge of period poverty prevalent among school-going children from their community, in particular and Bulawayo in general. 

Development partners and studies concur with the challenge of period poverty, hence in 2022 Treasury allocated an equivalent of US$6 million in the national budget towards the provision of sanitary wear for girls to cover at least 80 percent of rural beneficiaries.

Latest reports suggest that 72 percent of girls in rural areas do not use recommended sanitary wear while period poverty is equally a lived reality for thousands of girls in the urban areas. At the same time, about 62 percent of girls miss school every month while menstruating, surveys show. 

Informed by such childhood experiences, Miss Sibanda, who says she spent most of her teenage hood with her father, strongly appreciates the struggles of communicating menstrual hygiene issues with a male figure, which made her realize the gap in society hence the dream to bridge that need.

“The initiative was launched on February 21 on my birthday in 2020 at Emakhandeni Secondary and Dukathole Primary in Germiston, South Africa. After that, we have expanded to various schools and orphanage homes,” she said. 

“I am now based in New Zealand while Bongisiwe is in South Africa but we make sure that the dream lives on.” 

Miss Sibanda said their organization was donating 130 packets of pads to St Padre Pio Secondary School in Mutare every month. 

“Our goal is to at least give 1 000 packs every quarter around the world. We don’t want to reach girls in Africa alone but we wish that the Hygiene for Girls Foundation expands to the Asian continent before the end of the year,” she said. 

“Bongi is running a logistics business and transports goods around Africa and it has helped us to easily transport the boxes. I’m based in Auckland New Zealand and we will continue ensuring that more and more get to continue in fighting period poverty.”

On Friday last week, the two young women joined the world in marking International Women’s Day by distributing pads to learners at Emakhandeni Secondary School. 

“I love the fact that the Women’s Day is now becoming a custom year after year. Moreover, this celebration is a sign of appreciation, respect, love, and care towards women in our lives and society,” said Miss Sibanda. 

“Pad donations will restore the dignity of the school girls in need of sanitary pads and prevent the mockery they experience when using clothes or tissue paper, and subsequently improve their vaginal hygiene. 

“The pad drive is an outreach initiative, which not only seeks to make sanitary pads accessible to underprivileged girls but also aims to enable success so that school girls can continue with their studies without having to miss school due to lack of sanitary pads or fear of humiliation.”

Under the Bulawayo City Council survey on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in 2022, it was established that several girls aged between 10 to 18 years have little and or zero access to sanitary wear. 

From the risk assessment, it was noted that 6 000 girls in 30 council schools (as of June 2023), need sanitary pads every month, hence the need for programmes that increase the number of pads to accommodate every girl child in need of sanitary wear.

Council’s corporate communications manager, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, said as part of their vision of being a leading smart transformative city by 2024, regular risk assessments were being done to ensure a safe, conducive learning environment for the girl child.

“The findings informed the council’s programming as far as creating awareness of the importance of gender and disability mainstreaming. 

“This is in line with the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3 of Good Health and Well Being, SDG 5 of Gender Equality, and SDG 6 of Clean Water and Sanitation. So far, 4 477 packets of pads have been distributed in our schools since survey results came out,” said Mrs Mpofu. 

“We have procured 3 000 pads to be distributed in the first quarter of 2024 and we are confident that the programme has also reduced stigma and period poverty, which has a significant impact on young girls who often have to resort to using unhygienic alternatives.”