Being ON is not a crime!
What started as an ordinary day at school, ended in shame
and tears as Rudo started her period during class. With no knowledge about what
was happening to her body, she got up to go to the toilet and all of a sudden
all the boys in class jeered and laughed at her making her feel out of place
and shameful.
She became known as the girl who spoiled, the
girl who is ripe and ready.
With no adequate information and no sanitary wear,
Rudo had to go home bearing the shame bearing the red dot on her skirt… With
all the boys and men in the village looking at her like she is fresh meat.
It’s a SHAME!
There are so many girls out there who have experienced
what Rudo experienced and some of them even stopped going to school for good.
Is menstruation so shameful that we leave our children to be embarrassed first
then we talk about it?
Are we so backward that we don’t see the need for the
girl-child to have adequate sanitary wear; it’s not her fault, it's natural,
it’s the start of her journey into womanhood. Must she begin her journey with
painful bruises in her vagina from tissue paper or cow dung or newspapers? Must
she then sell her virginity for money to be able to buy sanitary wear?
If condoms are FREE why not pads? They should be
FREE after all.
Research has shown that young girls in high-density,
rural areas and mining communities whose parents cannot afford to buy sanitary
wear have to make a plan; a plan that is detrimental to their health. Some
girls end up folding exercise book pages, newspapers, old rags or clothes, sand
or cow dung.
How do we build the dreams of the girl-child inside
and outside the classroom if we treat her like a shame, how do we support,
protect and put a STOP to child marriages, early sex, prostitution or teenage
pregnancies?
We all have a part to play!
Already we have groups helping out through
menstruation cups, sewing, and donating re-useable pads and we applaud their
efforts.
We need to work together and advocate for FREE Sanitary
wear! We need to do it for our girls. If
each person was to donate a pack for the next person, everyone would benefit.
If we can have free sanitary wear drop points in every area where people can
donate and the pads can go to different areas, to where the need is
greatest.
Together we can do more!