No Mess, No Stress: Ending Period Poverty in Kafue
By Annabel Mumba
Annabel Mumba is AEP’s Donor Relations Coordinator in Zambia. She is a Scholarship Fund recipient, high school graduate, and one of our latest Success Stories too! Annabel recently captured the stories behind our menstrual pad distribution to the girls in our program.
The smile was evident on the girls faces as they received the amazing news about the menstrual packages that they were going to receive. One girl screamed at the top of her voice, “Yes!!” This was a big deal for them, a saviour of period misery, not from menstrual pain or menstruation itself, but the misery of not having menstrual products to help them manage their periods. Periods are not a disease -- they are something that most girls go through until they reach menopause. But without the proper “tools” a period sure feels like a disease, a terrible one if you ask them!
“The thought of me not going to use a piece of cloth for my periods anymore is overwhelming, my prayer is that many more girls get to be blessed like me today.”
Many girls in Zambia, like in many African countries and beyond, still face segregation and discrimination when it comes to menstruation. They are still considered to be unclean and it is a taboo to even talk about your period. Girls are taught early on to use household items like cloths and rags when their period arrives. Few families manage to buy sanitary pads for their daughters, with the economic crisis that the country is experiencing, menstruation products are a luxury that cannot be afforded.
The Amos Youth Centre (AYC) created a girls’ club called One Up for Girl Power where girls could talk about health topics like menstruation. Before the pandemic hit, the centre provided pads to girls every month and this program has been running for more than six years. In 2019, the African Education Program (AEP) created a reusable pad campaign that benefitted 100 girls at AYC who received training on menstrual health and they all received a pack of reusable pads and learned how to make them too. That was the beginning of our fight to end period poverty for our girls!
This year, when the pandemic hit, the schools in our community closed and our centre closed too. We soon learned that COVID-19 was not just making period poverty worse worldwide, but for our girls as well. When we conducted a survey to find out what the girls in our program were using while menstruating, 30% reported using rags or traditional methods during their period. 72% said they would like to try a menstrual cup or find out more information. So, thanks to generous donations through AEP’s GlobalGiving Reuse, Rise, Rejoice campaign and COVID-19 Emergency Relief Family Fund, enough money was raised to distribute a pack of reusable pads and a menstrual cup to 200 of our young women and girls. The menstrual health trainings and distribution started this week.
“This menstrual package has me covered for the next 8 years of my life, no stress about buying pads anymore!”
Girls from 8th grade to university who are beneficiaries of AEP received their package and many parents provided positive feedback on how grateful they were about the “presents” to their girls, a perfect Christmas gift!
Lumuno Chongo, AYC’s Programs Director, provided a training on how to use and clean the menstrual cups since the girls have never used a cup before. Even the girls in our special education program were not left out and they, too, received menstrual products and took part in the training.
It is exciting to know now that our girls will not have to miss school because of lack of menstrual products.