Period pains: Girls suffer due to lack of sanitary products

While condoms are freely available at public centres, thousands of teenage girls are missing school because they do not have sanitary pads when they menstruate.

Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng shadow MEC for social development Refiloe Nt’sekhe said pupils continued to miss school every month because they do not have access to sanitary pads.

“The Gauteng department of social development has failed to meet its targets for the dignity pack programme, despite this programme being in existence for over 11 years.

The department’s inability to meet its set targets for this programme has resulted in over R31 million being returned to Treasury,” Nt’sekhe said.

In a written reply to the DA’s questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, MEC for social development Morakane Mosupyoe said the department’s underexpenditure on the dignity packs programme was due to late finalisation of specifications.

Mosupyoe said the programme assisted 96 536 beneficiaries with 1 158 437 dignity packs distributed in the 2021-2022 financial year. In the 2020-2021 financial year, 548 998 packs reached 45 749 beneficiaries, while 804 872 packs reached 67 072 beneficiaries the previous year.

This month, the Cradle of Hope shelter for abused women and children’s dignity project manager, Ronel Snyman, said a young girl slipped a note in her hand asking for sanitary pads during a food handout.

“Girls are often forced to stay at home when menstruating to avoid the embarrassment of being in public without the necessary products because the piece of fabric, sock or newspaper didn’t provide enough protection,” she said.

Snyman said there was a stigma around the embarrassing story of the struggle of being female. “Why are condoms freely available when sex is a choice, yet you can’t choose to menstruate or not? Why are pads not freely available?” Snyman asked.

Cradle of Hope shelter founder Melodie van Brakel said recyclable or fabric pads were not the answer for those living in the townships with limited access to water.

“Cloth pads are okay but the problem is girls living in the informal settlements share one tap with 300 households,” she said.

“How embarrassing it would be if a girl had to rinse her pad at the tap to hang out to dry in front of everyone.”

She said menstrual cups were also impractical for those living in contained spaces with limited access to water. “Tampons are a luxury.

That’s why we only ask for pads because we can’t keep up with the demand from the needy,” Van Brakel said.

Nokuzola Ndwandwe, awardwinning activist for menstrual health and founding director of Team Free Sanitary Pads, said the government had to be held accountable for the lack of provision of free menstrual products for all in the past 11 years.

Ndwandwe said the #TeamFreeSanitaryPads collective movement was embarking on peaceful walks on Friday in Pretoria and Cape Town to deliver over 27 000 signatures and a memorandum.

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– marizkac@citizen.co.za