Sanitary products are a human right

Health is a human right. Basic healthcare is a human right. I mentioned this in my roundup but it deserves more than a passing mention.

Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) has the facts on a health crisis facing Zimbabwean women:

• Current average minimum wage for a woman in Zimbabwe is £12.50 per month. This excludes the farm workers, domestic workers and women in the informal economy - their wages are far lower. That is £3.00 a month.
  
• ¾ of the women are working in the farm, informal and domestic sectors of the economy.
  
• Currently the cost of a box of 10 tampons is £3.00. Consumption is on average three boxes a month.
  
• Currently the cheapest packet of 10 sanitary pads is 50p. Consumption is on average two packets.

With unemployment at 80% and inflation in Zimbabwe at over 1000%, sanitary products are a luxury only for the richest -- the vast majority of Zimbabwean women cannot afford them. Instead, the resort to newspaper, toilet paper (when they can afford it), leaves, and bark.

Think about that for a minute. Newspaper. Leaves. Bark. Girls are getting a poor education, as they stay home from school durign their periods because they have no sanitary products. That however, seems to be the least of the problems. None of these napkin or tampon substitutes are sanitary. Newspaper ink is particularly harmful. Predictably, vaginal infections are common, and the numbers are rising.

The vast majority of Zimbabweans also cannot afford medical treatment, and there is a medicine shortage, so many drugs are unavailable anyway. There's a water shortage. Hygiene is a luxury. Vaginal infections can be fatal if untreated. Many partners cannot tell the difference between a vaginal infection and an STD, so levels of domestic violence are also rising, as men assume their wives have been unfaithful, and beat them for it.

The government does not, of course, regard this as important:

'When an MP raised the issue in parliament, government ministers fell about laughing and dismissed the matter.'

Tabitha Khumalo, general secretary of the Women’s Advisory Council of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), has started the "Dignity. Period!" campaign. As a result:

'[she] has been arrested 22 times, tortured so badly that her front teeth were knocked into her nose and had an AK-47 thrust up her vagina until she bled.'

When donations of sanitary products were sent to Zimbabwe, the government pulled a spectacularly disgusting move, and has required all donated sanitary products to be quality tested before a duty exemption will be considered, thus increasing the delay in getting sanitary products to women who need them and increasing the health risks. As other bloggers have pointed out -- did the Zimbabwean government quality-test the newspaper and bark? Of course not. Because they are not concerned with basic health.

What you can do to help:

• Read up. ACTSA has more info. You can also download and distribute ACTSA's leaflet (PDF).
  
• Make a secure online donation to ACTSA's campaign, or send a check if you prefer (details on ACTSA's website).
  
• Brits can email their MPs and ask them to support Parliamentary Early Day Motion 862, that would make funds available to support the ACTSA campaign

Please consider doing something. Basic health should be anything but a luxury. Women's health is being disregarded, talked over, and talked down; and with fatal consequences.

(You know, rereading this, I am struck by the determination and courage of Tabitha Khumalo and others like her who continue to fight for this, despite the imprisonment and torture they endure. I admire them.)

(A massive thank you to Jay for publicising this.)

--IP