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What it means to be a woman in SA... to me at least

Hey friends



So over the last few months I have been so moved (sometimes to tears) by how much women go through in South Africa and the continent at large on a daily basis. This post is going to be a little bit of a rant and very vulnerable but hopefully it will lead me to no just write about it but do something about it. I don’t know what needs to change but something has to give.

I moved to Johannesburg a little over five years ago. The first 18 months were rough! REALLY rough! A friend of mine and I would say (she was going through the most during that time too) that we were being baptized into adulthood by fire! It makes me clap once when I think about that time. I was so broke I could not afford to buy toiletries, especially sanitary towels. I went for months using toilet paper. You can only imagine the discomfort and how dirty I constantly felt. When I was able to buy sanitary towels, I legitimately cried in the toiletry isle at Dischem feeling so grateful but slightly resentful that something I could not control, I felt I was being punished for it.

My sanitary items probably cost me about R100 a month. It’s not a lot of money for me now and I am still grateful that I am able to put that into my budget. That memory of not being able to buy sanitary towels has remained engrained in my memory because I know that I am not an anomaly. There are many women and young girls across the continent that cannot afford them. R100 is a week’s worth (and even longer) of food for some families. A year ago there was an article that was published talking about how Treasury refused to zerorise/zero-rate (?) VAT on sanitary towels. WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK!

I HAVE NO CONTROL OF MY BODY & WOMB! There are girls who miss school because they cannot even afford to use toilet paper during that time of the month. How is this still allowed? WHERE IS THE ANC WOMEN’S LEAGUE!!!!!!!??? What is the point of having a WHOLE portfolio/ministry if such basic human needs are not being met. I don’t care to have conversations about it, I want action! I am enraged! (dramatic?)

Do you know what enrages me more is that going to the gynecologist is for the privileged. I had to get medical aid for me to be able to go to the OBGYN, even then my medical aid will pay a partial amount and dictate to me who I can and cannot go to because “It is not in your plan” What k@k is that? I won’t delve too much into this because this post will never end.
I get it, Always & Tampax and whoever saw a gap in the market & filled it. This capitalism after all. I do however hope, pray, wish that profit would not be the only driving force. Although, praying alone is not enough…but that’s a discussion for another day

Next year when we celebrate Women’s day, I hope that sanitary towels (that do not feel like nappies) are made free to every school kid in S.A. and beyond our borders. It takes a village to raise a child.
This post is not just to complain but to challenge myself to be part of the solution. To start or carry on with whatever initiatives have been put in place so that no girl misses school and there is a qualified FREE OBGYN at every clinic in SA.

This rant was brought to you by … broke Stellah 2013.
XO

Stellah

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