Copper Rose Zambia (CRZ) has commended government for its decision to provide free sanitary napkins to girls in rural and peri urban schools in the 2017 national budget.
Natasha Salifyanji Kaoma who is Founder and CEO said the move was a clear demonstration of Government’s efforts to integrate matters of the girl child in its development agenda.
CRZ which is a group of young people advocating on matters of menstrual hygiene to ensure that there is a significant reduction in absenteeism in schools across five districts in the country.
Ms Kaoma noted that her organization has witnessed how girls use leaves, rugs, mattresses, and even mud to deal with their monthly menstrual periods.
She said a result of the challenge some girls have no choice but to miss school when they are attending their periods.
“These methods are incompatible with school attendance, leaving them with no choice but to miss about 39 days in every school year,” She observed.
She said her organization has distributed thousands of disposable sanitary napkins to schools and has started a small scale business model to get local women to produce and sell washable sanitary napkins to their communities.
She further called on government to engage stakeholders on how to make the distribution of free napkins sustainable.
“There have been a number of concerns from citizens and stakeholders concerning the sustainability of this free sanitary napkins distribution exercise, especially because there are very few companies that are locally producing sanitary napkins,” Ms Kaoma said.
She urged government to engage stakeholders on how to make the distribution sustainable and to engage more companies in production of sanitary napkins for the empowerment of its citizens.
Ms Kaoma observed that If the government decides to distribute disposable sanitary napkins, proper modalities for disposal such as incinerators should be installed along with the first consignment, ensuring that no new problems are created from this development.
“As the distribution of sanitary napkins is undertaken, government should look into the education of the recipients on matters of menstrual hygiene management.”
“ Because of social taboos, this subject is inadequately covered in the school curriculum hence the distribution should be coupled with thorough education of its recipients on menstrual hygiene practices including the proper use of these products considering that most of the girls will be using them for the very first time,” she said
Ms kaoma who is also a health practitioners perspective noted that improper use of the products may lead to an upsurge of vaginal infections and other negative health outcomes.
Jokers. Not when teenage pregnancy has increased due to poverty under pf government whereby young girls have been forced out of school and see marriage as a meal ticket. Btw who is responsible for tasila lungu’s pregnancy?
School girls in Uganda sew their own Rreusable sanitary pads-
School girls in Uganda sew their own reusable sanitary pads
Reusable “sani pads” (available in Uganda, Kenya and Ghana)
ARE THERE BOOKS AND TEACHERS IN THE BUDGET TOO FOR THE GIRLS?
Is this sustainable in the long run if we are unable to buy desks and computers for primary and secondary schools?
Mwe bena calo chandi ichachifyalilwa, ala… this is just the tip of an iceberg.. ala balami contolola ukutampafye nakale mukwai
balemibepa ati “christian nation” kanshi balemishibastisha amenso.. they keep you busy with the bible, uku kanshi baletunta ifyuma kunse kwa muchalo cha Zambia bane. ala shibukeni.. fundeni abantu bonse.. abana ne fibusa nabenamupalamino bafwile baumfwa ililyashi, ala fingi ifintu ficitika, elyo munasheko no kukolwa ngamulefwaya ukumfwikisha?
Instead of working to reduce the ever Rising Cost of Living so tat parents/guardians to girls can afford buy sanitaries; they resort to desperate vote buying thru smal gifts in name of empowering girls.
Wat a mediocre PF government.
Instead of reducing tax on sanitary pads and giving incentives to local manufacturers…you go and start physically procuring them and distributing them encouraging corruption.
These chaps just want a way to steal money. What is needed is for GRZ to teach the girls and mothers sew their own reusable sanitary pads. see daysforgirls dot org let the opposition monitor the misuse of funds in the name of provision of free sanitary pads
Lack of vision and interested in stealing. Is that the way to create wealth? These chaps are not interested in bringing poverty level to a minimal. Waste of tax payers money. These is how our MPs think.