Imagine you are on your period, it is heavy this month and all you have is one maxi pad that you have to reuse over and over because you cannot afford a pack of pads. Or worse still, all you have is a piece of cloth, or feathers, or maize husks or a STONE. I am not making this up, yes, there are girls and women out there who use a myriad of obscene things during their period simply because they have no access and are unable to afford menstrual hygiene products.
65% of girls and women in Kenya cannot afford menstrual hygiene products. That means, in every 10 girls, 7 of them are unable to participate fully in their day to day activities during that time of the month due to lack of something as necessary as A PAD/TAMPON.
Period poverty is nothing new. It has been around for quite some time. This is the lack of accessibility and affordability of menstrual hygiene products due to financial constraints.
Recently, I took up a challenge and did a quick and simple survey on this topic just to have a clear picture of how things are on the ground. My targeted group was women who were my friends and family, most of them being between the age of 22 to 45. Click on the following link to see the results https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-63G8ZQX77/
25 out of 38 women preferred using pads as opposed to tampons or menstrual cups. 15 out of 38 women said that their period lasted for 4 days while 9 said that their period lasted for more than 5 days. 22 out of 35 women said that their preferred menstrual hygiene product cost more than 100 shillings as most of them needed to use 2 packs of the preferred menstrual hygiene product during their period. Asked whether they thought menstrual hygiene products are accessible and affordable for every Kenyan woman, 38 out of 38 women answered no.
I know my survey is not as extensive as it should be and does not represent all demographics but we get the idea, don't we? Truthfully speaking, things are not good.
Menstrual hygiene products are not a luxury, they are a necessity. So why are they taxed? Why are they not affordable for every woman? Why isn't anybody talking about this?
I have read about campaigns that help low-income girls and women end period poverty by donating menstrual cups as well as educating them on how to use it. Big up to them and their efforts but what they seem to forget is that the precondition of using menstrual cups safely is to have a constant supply of water. It's no secret that water is a MAJOR problem in the slums and rural areas and this is where most of these girls and women are. Menstrual cups need to be cleaned and kept clean throughout otherwise you risk a chance of getting infections. So, are we helping these women and girls?
I also read that Procter & Gamble's popular sanitary towels brand, Always came up with a cheaper alternative, a pack containing 8 pads for ksh.50. While this is a brilliant idea, they forget that some women might need more than one pack of those, especially when the flow is heavy. So they end up spending roughly ksh 150 for 3 packs which is a bit of a stretch for them financially.
I am also aware that the government, together with some other organizations have donated/offered free sanitary towels to school girls but as expected, sometimes pads are stolen and or supplies run out.
So this is the situation now, donations run out, menstrual cups are not so good of a choice for women and girls with no constant supply of water and the cheaper pads aren't that cheap for everyone.
Imagine having to deal with the painful cramps, migraines and mood swings every month AS WELL AS not be able to comfortably access and afford pads/tampons? All while condoms are dished out in millions across the country by the government. I know, I know, the condoms are necessary for population control but come on! Menstrual hygiene products are essential!
We need sustainability in order to avoid a case of supplies running out and those in charge should be held accountable in case of any mishaps. Whether it is through donations(as it is now, there are numerous NGO'S working towards this) or free pads from the government, sustainability is the solution to the problem.
Chero