Makonde -
When her monthly period comes, 17-year-old Maria Chaodza
dismantles a home-made pillowcase and picks out pieces of its
worn stuffing - an old, cloth rug - which she uses in place of
the sanitary pad she cannot afford.
Menstruation means missing school; Chaodza feels too ashamed
of her makeshift pad to show her face as she battles days of
heavy bleeding.
Neither her parents, who are peasant farmers in Zimbabwe’s
Mashonaland West Province in Makonde rural district, nor her
boyfriend in the village can afford to buy her sanitary wear.
Zimbabwe is suffering a sanitary wear crisis.
With many schoolgirls too poor to buy the sort of basic
products most teens take for granted, they rely on teachers'
donations, torn strips of cloth, plants and old newspapers.
In February this year, hundreds of girls and women gathered
in the capital for a march dubbed “Happy Flow Campaign” to
demand more affordable sanitary wear.
First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has distributed free sanitary
pads to poor women and girls, and hopes are now rising that this
year's elections might yet ease the crisis.
“If we vote for the right person to lead our country, I’m
sure things will get better for us, as poor woman, facing
difficulties (getting) sanitary wear," said Chaodza.
Until then, handouts and ersatz pads will have to do.
“Some young girls resort to using weeds and leaves in place
of sanitary pads, compromising their health," Obert Masaraure,
president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe,
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"We appeal for free sanitary wear in our schools.”
Along with the rural teachers, civil society groups such as
the Youth Dialogue Action Network have stepped in to help.
“We have managed to raise resources to enable us get
sanitary wear for the poor women and girls, especially in rural
areas. Sanitary wear is a big challenge to them because most
families here live on less than $1 a day,” its director
Catherine Mkwapati told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
It costs the equivalent of $5 to buy one standard packet of
pads in Zimbabwe, way beyond the reach of many families. It cost
just $1 in 2015, before the nation's economic crisis worsened.
With average earnings per head of $253 dollars a month, most
families would rather spend $5 on a standard 20 kg bag of maize.
Even for grown women like 37-year-old Tracy Hungwe, who
lives in the same rural district as Chaodza, so-called period
poverty has become a repeated monthly problem.
“I share a little torn towel with my 16-year-old daughter
during our menstruation because buying actual sanitary wear from
shops is very expensive ” she told Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"And even if they become cheaper, we have no money."
Yet with two years of cash shortages worsening in this
southern African nation, pads have only grown more expensive.
Companies such as Clovit Investments - which used to
manufacture sanitary pads in Zimbabwe - ceased operations four
years ago, so pads are now imported from neighbouring countries
like South Africa, boosting prices.
In November, Zimbabwe’s sole remaining sanitary wear maker,
Onsdale Enterprises, faced closure as it lacked the foreign
currency to import raw materials. It is not currently operating.
Parliamentarians from the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party have urged the government to invest in the industry
and provide free period products as a show of respect.
“Sanitary wear should be made readily available free of
charge just like condoms; government should pay for sanitary
wear. Government should take the dignity of women and girls
seriously,” Jessie Majome, a Zimbabwean legislator from the
opposition MDC party, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
But with a dearth of cash in the rural areas that are home
to more than 70 percent of the population, women are hard hit.
“Here in the village, even if a relative living in the city
sends you money via your mobile phone, in order to buy (things)
using that money, shops require physical money, not money
transferred from your phone. This is hurting us,” Chaodza said.
Traders who sell imported sanitary products need foreign
currency and a handsome margin to turn enough profit from their
business, pushing prices out of the reach of many locals.
“Remember, we need foreign currency to go and buy these
sanitary pads to sell, and we also need profit. We can’t run a
business on practising mercy,” Jimson Mugove, who sells wares
imported from South Africa, told Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Activists say the situation is now desperate, forcing tough
decisions on anyone poor who menstruates.
"Because they just want to have sanitary wear, some of the
girls and women are in desperate mode and engage in sex work,
just to have something to buy sanitary wear, ” Sarah Chikono, an
activist with the rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise, said.
"But that doesn’t end like that, because it’s always tragic
as some of them get infected with AIDS," she told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation.
Thomson
Reuters Foundation