The Battle Against Period Poverty Continues in Zimbabwe

Lauren Dent / Jan 2 / Health Poverty

In late November, Scotland took a huge move forward in the fight against period poverty, by becoming the first country to provide free products to anyone who needs them.

Described as ‘ground-breaking’ by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, was a four-year-long campaign spearheaded by Monica Lennon, a Member of the Scottish Parliament, that fought to establish access to free period products as a right.

The Labour MSP said, “This is a bold and ground-breaking piece of legislation. No girl or woman should have to worry about being able to afford or have access to period products…It really shouldn’t be a big deal. When you go into the toilet, you expect toilet paper to be there and you should be able to expect period products as well.”

However, in countries like Zimbabwe, it is a different story. The luxury of toilet paper is very often not available, and one is lucky to have running water in a public facility, let alone free period products. Zimbabwean women continue to resort to makeshift period protection such as newspapers, rags, corn husks, leaves and even cow dung to help manage their monthly flow; they either cannot afford basic sanitary wear, or do not have access to it.

This humiliating act is mainly due to the country’s worsening economic situation, which has been characterized by one of the highest inflation rates in the world. While the average worker earns around US$40 a month, sanitary pads which on average cost $US1.50 a packet are often put at the very bottom of the list when one is also faced with paying for rent, transport, school fees, and food.

“Let me highlight that menstrual poverty is not something that only affects girls or women who are poor. It is not just lack of sanitary wear, but it is also a lack of proper menstrual facilities, period education and a period-friendly environment,” says Theresa Farai Nyava, the founder of Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe Trust, “When a girl is on her period, she needs a supportive environment that helps her to manage her period with dignity.”

Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe Trust supports underprivileged women and girls in marginalised circumstances, such as homeless girls, female prisoners, female refugees and girls in children’s homes by providing the amenities needed for menstruation.

“I was born into a family with five girls with an extended family of 15 people in rural Zvimba. Seven of us were girls who needed at least seven packets of sanitary pads every month to manage our periods but due to unavailability, we had to resort to using anything else to manage our periods,” recalls Theresa.

According to a study undertaken by SNV Zimbabwe, 62% of schoolgirls in Zimbabwe miss school every month due to lack of sanitary wear, while 70% aren’t even aware of sanitary products. When girls are starting their periods as young as nine-years-old, the pressures faced are often heightened and lead the girls to drop out of school. Others, unfortunately, turn to transactional sex in order to earn money to buy sanitary products, often leading them to contract STI’s and unwanted pregnancies.

The Restoration Hem Project, which was founded in 2015 by Jennifer Kaiser and is run alongside her partner Takawira Sithole, is a similar organisation which focuses on girls in rural schools and communities.

“Obviously the issue of managing menstruation is a global issue,” says Jennifer, “but it really blew my mind when I heard about girls in Zimbabwe missing school because they do not have access to basics like underwear.”

The team distribute reusable sanitary kits to the girls and lead seminars on sexual reproductive health, menstrual health and personal hygiene. The kits the team distributes to the girls include underwear, two sets of reusable pads, soap, pegs to hang them on the line to dry and a drawstring bag to carry them in.

“We try to go into the more rural communities because often times it can just be an issue of access. Whether the girls can or can’t afford the product, they actually have nowhere to go to buy them, that or the products simply aren’t being prioritised within the household budgets,” says Jennifer.

“Sometimes we hear the girls say, ‘We had absolutely no idea about this’ or, ‘I thought something was wrong with me’ and ‘I haven’t told anyone what’s happening to me’,” Jennifer says.

Taboo and stigma are still faced within the culture when it comes to menstrual health and the Zimbabwe Formative Research on Menstrual health, conducted last year by UNICEF Zimbabwe, discovered that 40% of girls never received any information on menstrual health management.

“There is a fine line of telling a girl that what her mother or grandmother has taught her is wrong. You definitely have to be sensitive to the cultural norms that exist,” explains Jennifer, “It’s not going to go away with one conversation or seminar, but the hope is that as the conversation continues, there is a ripple effect and the new things they are learning will become more normalised.”

Jennifer highlights that once a girl starts her period and the girl becomes a woman, it often kickstarts a mentality whereby the girl child can go off and get married and reproduce. This is often the case when a family is struggling to afford education and support the child, leading her to drop out of school.

Takawira agreed and noted that when visiting the communities, the girls are often more responsive and give more feedback when they are by themselves. When the mums and elders join in too, they aren’t as open as they don’t want to contradict what they have already been told. Theresa raises her concerns a bit more when it comes to cultural taboos. Zimbabwe’s constitution permits traditional leaders to “take measures to preserve the culture, traditions and heritage of their communities ” and she worries that the preserving of traditions and culture will preserve the taboos that violate women’s menstrual rights and freedoms. Her other worry is a failure of people to recognise period poverty as a humanity problem, especially from men.

“We try to meet with the boys separately to tell them about puberty and menstruation because they need to know what is going on as well,” says Takawira, “We don’t always get the opportunity to, but when we do, we take advantage of it.” He confirms that they have received positive feedback from administrators about the boys’ responses and that their reactions to periods and understanding of their girl peers changed completely. 

However, the situation is only intensified when taking into consideration that many of the pressures are only being alleviated due to charitable or NGO work. Theresa says, “Our main challenge in our work is lack of resources to reach out to more vulnerable girls who are suffering from period poverty. The move by Scotland has shown us that it can be done but Zimbabwe still has a long way to go to completely eradicate period poverty.”