On Sanitary Wear...

The 11^th of October was the International day of the girl child. For those of you who do not know this year’s theme was “Empowering adolescent girls: Ending the cycle of violence”. I am not going to talk about this year’s theme though. I have other girl child issues on my mind…

I’ll just get right to it, although I would like to apologise in advance for any uncomfortable issues that may be raised from hereon.

It breaks my heart that somewhere in Zimbabwe some young school going girl has to make a decision every month to either miss a few days of school or use old clothes, leaves or worse still cow dung as sanitary wear because her parents cannot afford to buy her sanitary wear.

For those of you that do not know, a girl’s period can easily be classified as the most uncomfortable time of the month. I am qualified to make this assertion because I am a woman. The only difference between me and the girls I have described is that I have access to sanitary wear, I can stand in the supermarket (like I did on this day) and choose between cotton wool, pads and tampons, I can even narrow my search down to preferred brands. Albeit even after all this preparation the coming days will still be very uncomfortable.

One may wonder why these girls decide not to go to school and the answer is simply that the alternative sanitary wear that they can afford is not 100% effective and can lead to “accidents” in the classroom. Accidents that adversely affect ones confidence and could possibly make one the butt of classroom jokes for years. Also these alternatives are known to result in nasty odours.

Further to this, health professionals have highlighted that the use of unhealthy sanitary wear can result in various infections and diseases.

I am sure you get the picture…

Due to the fact that most of the sanitary wear sold in Zimbabwe is imported, our female Members of Parliament (take a moment to clap hands for them) are currently fighting for the removal of duty on sanitary wear, with the hope that this will lead to subsequent reduction in price.  So while they do the much that they can do, I have decided to do the little that I can do to help a girl or two. If there is anyone who would like to join me in trying to make a girls period less uncomfortable please email me on tariro1210@gmail.com