Rural girls benefit from NGO project
A NON-Governmental Organisation — Qeqetsha Project has embarked on an ambitious project of distributing reusable sanitary pads to rural girls in Filabusi, Matabeleland South province.
The project which started in June this year has seen the organisation distributing 377 packs to vulnerable girls in the district.
The sanitary distribution programme is aimed at keeping young girls in school during their monthly cycle, amid revelations that most rural girls do not attend school during their menstrual cycle because they will not be having sanitary pads.
The director of Qeqetsha, Miss Joy Rukanzakanza, who is a second year student double majoring in Political Science and International Studies at Bryn Mawr College in United States of America, said the programme was a girl empowerment initiative aimed at facilitating better success to education for female students through sustainable provision of the girl child needs.
She said they were also facilitating access to reusable sanitary wear as well as providing mentorship and career guidance platforms.
“I started this initiative when I won a national competition in the USA courtesy of the Davis Projects for Peace, a fellowship which prompts students studying in USA to design projects fostering peace within the community. Being a girl who grew up in Africa fully comprehending the plight of women and girls prompted me to design a proposal aligned to a girl and women empowerment, with funds from the fellowship, I came to Zimbabwe and started this project in June,” said Miss Rukanzakanza.
She said they had started the initiative at Filabusi High School where they also constructed a chicken run to be manned by a girl empowerment club at the school.
“Having identified problems such as lack of sanitary wear as well as the disproportionate allocation of property based on gender, the project aims at balancing the equation through constructing the chicken run whose proceeds will go towards the advancements in the reusable sanitary wear initiative,” she said.
Statistics from various stakeholders say 45 percent of rural school girls use piece of old clothes and rags during their menstrual cycle days. Health experts say use of rags, leaves and cow dung, might cause bruises through discomfort, urinary tract infections, cancer and other gynaecological diseases.
Statistics also show that 20 percent of rural school girls do not attend school during their menstrual periods because they cannot afford sanitary wear. When one uses reusable pads they wear them for only six hours and soak them in cold water for two minutes and leave them to dry.
When washing them it is advised that people should use bathing or washing soap and avoid applying other washing detergents.