adminhealth of females in disadvantaged areas.
The campaign is being led by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender, and Community Development.
The ministry’s director of community development Mr Christopher Chingosho said the issue of sanitary wear for women and girls should be a priority.
He was speaking at the official opening of the Institute for Young Women Development Training Centre in Bindura last week.
“We are aware of the need for affordable and accessible sanitary wear for girls, young women and elderly women, especially from remote communities,” said Mr Chingosho.
“They have endured using pieces of cloth and other materials that expose them to cancer and many other reproductive system problems.”
The re-usable pad has been developed by a team of researchers and can be used for over 12 months with daily washing.
“This is a new technology that I and the Ministry applaud,” Mr Chingosho said.
“As far as we are concerned, the pad has undergone and passed the necessary tests in the laboratories and needs approval by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare.
“We are taking ourselves to task as the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development to work together with our sister Ministry of Health to ensure that the pad is approved and made available to the needy in order to save the lives of many girls, young women and elderly women.”
Mr Chingosho said the Institute for Young Women Development Training Centre would equip young women with technical and entrepreneurial skills.
This would enable them to start and run viable income generating projects and contribute toward poverty reduction among young women from rural communities, many of whom have been born and continue to live in abject poverty.
“The training centre will provide informal education to young women on various aspects of life, which most of them have missed as they have not been accorded an equal opportunity to education due to poverty and historical social constructs that have discriminated against the girl child,” Mr Chingosho said.
The training centre located in Chiwaridzo high-density suburb and serving mining and farming communities in Mashonaland Central, has already taken in its first intake of 30 students.
The group will undertake a two-month course in entrepreneurship and making of school uniforms and the re-usable sanitary pads.
The director of the training centre Ms Glanis Changachirere said they were planning to expand into a business centre that would cater for diverse needs of young women in the area.
“We strongly believe that if successful, our project – which we have entitled: ‘Investing in Young Women, Investing in the Nation, Investing in the Future’ can go a long way towards promoting sustainable livelihoods among young women and reduce violence against women,” she said.
Online Reporter