Pads,Power and Progress: Fighting Period Poverty

It is the simplest human dignity for a woman or girl child. To be able to ensure her hygiene and dignity during menstruation. A simple pad. But there is nothing simple about something you cannot afford. Instead, critical school days are missed. Unemployed mothers miss work interviews because they cannot afford the dignity of a pad. Working women miss work and endanger their income.   In South Africa, poverty rates are higher for women than men, particularly for Black African women. Black women are more likely to live in low-income households, in rural areas or informal settlements, where access to sanitary products, clean water, and decent sanitation is weaker.

When a household is very poor, buying sanitary products becomes a trade-off with other essentials (food, transport, utilities) — meaning menstrual dignity gets deprioritised.

During the month of Women's Day we started to collect donations of sanitary pads for the girls and women of our 4 very different vocational training skills projects for those who live in destitution among the mercy of the gangs across...