NGO mobilises sanitary wear for women in prison, girls

A NON-PROFIT organisation, Inside Out Development Trust (IODT), is appealing for aid from well-wishers to provide sanitary wear for women in prison and underprivileged girls in Bulawayo.

IODT administrator Nomvuya Garura said they noticed that a woman in prison survived on one reusable pad, while some school girls miss school due to lack of sanitary wear.

She said girls endured many challenges that could be alleviated through community participation.

“We realised that the girl child usually does not get enough sanitary wear, clothes and food hence the reason behind this programme.

“We thought making posters of this will assist us in getting people to chip in so that we can secure clothes, food and sanitary wear for girls and women in prison,” she said.

Garura said the initiative would see young girls attending school and avoiding missing classes due to lack of food and sanitary wear.

“One other thing that we noticed about women in prison is that they only have one reusable pad and that doesn’t really work because as women they need two or more for change,” she said.

Garura said they were targeting to assist at least 100 girls in the city and women in prison.

“So to select the girls we are using an approach of asking local leaders in the community for instance health officers, child protection committees, councillors and church pastors to identify those who should be assisted,” she said.

The organisation recently asked the Noah’s Ark Church to allow prison inmates who are about to be released to use its space for vocational training purposes.