Sandra Ndebele, Pusheka Girl donate sanitary wear

BULAWAYO Ward 21 Councillor Sandra Ndebele-Sibindi in partnership with Pusheka Girl, an organisation of women entrepreneurs, donated sanitary wear to pupils from Mncumbatha and Mandwandwe high schools in her ward, to address the issue of period poverty.

Pusheka Girl is a community of female business owners, who believe that women should support each other in their endeavours.

They occasionally hold business expos where women sell their products and services.

Period poverty refers to the consequences linked to an inability to afford sanitary products to assist with menstruation.

Without sanitary wear, some learners are forced to engage in transactional sex thereby risking STIs, unwanted pregnancies and child marriages.

Recent findings have shown that some girls who lack adequate access end up resorting to unsafe means such as using cow dung, newspapers and rags, which are not sterilised.

Health experts say repeated use of these over long periods of time exposes women and girls to serious reproductive health risks, including infertility.

In a Unicef study conducted in Zimbabwe, 76 percent of surveyed girls in both rural and urban schools reported that they lacked basic information that would help them understand the changes happening in their bodies during adolescence.

Speaking soon after the donation, Clr Ndebele-Sibindi, said the event focused on encouraging the girl child to focus on their school work.

“We are hoping to continue to impart knowledge to these young girls on how to handle themselves. The programme has been successive and has made the girls engage with us,” she said.

Clr Ndebele-Sibindi challenged young people to focus on their studies instead of rushing into marriages.

“On the matter of sanitation, some girls abscond school due to period poverty. My aim is to motivate all the girls in my ward, so that they focus on their studies,” she said.

“I am hoping that the partnership I have made with Pusheka Girl will continue, so that we continue distributing sanitary pads to other schools. For instance, we have donated to Mncumbatha and Mandwandwe High Schools, to help those girls that cannot afford to buy sanitary pads.”