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
Comments
Post a Comment