A group of young women in Bulawayo known as The Ladies Auxiliary has donated sanitary wear to two orphanages, The Shelter and Home of Peace as part of efforts to alleviate challenges faced by underprivileged girls.
The initiative which started in Bulawayo is set to also benefit other young girls in Insiza, Nkayi, and Plumtree districts.
In an interview with CITE, the founder of Igugulethu Foundation, Gugulethu Dlodlo said she started the #PadAGirl drive and collaborated with four other young women and they managed to secure 400 sanitary pads out of the initial target of 500.
“During our first visit to the orphanage. The Director told us that the orphanage home has been operating since 2001, but they’ve never received any assistance from the government. So that’s when we decided to chip in and help the disadvantaged children and reduce poverty by distributing food and clothes to the underprivileged children between the ages of 10-17 years for both genders,” said Dlodlo.
Dlodlo said some girls are forced to use cow dung and newspapers during their menstrual cycle because they cannot access proper sanitary wear.
“We wanted to raise awareness on the plight of the girl child in Zimbabwe. Some girls do not have access to sanitary wear hence during menstruation they end up using cow dung, pieces of blanket clothes, newspapers, and other unsanitary stuff as ‘pads’. This comes with adverse health conditions,” she said.
