Zimbabwe: Chegutu Municipality: BFT women empowerment

The Chegutu Municipality regards this as a a good practise because they have both women and men participating in the project. They all contribute to the making of sanitary pads to assist some of the underprivileged girls in the rural area who cannot afford to by sanitary pads which $2 every month. What makes this project innovative is the idea that both women and men are being engaged in promoting hygiene whilst on menstrual cycles. This program has helped to eradicate some of the unhygienic staff that girls used during their menstrual periods. These things includes cow dung, grass  newspapers and others were even tang traditional contraceptives so that they can delay or stop the menstrual cycle because t was becoming more embarrassing especially for those who are going to school.

The project is aiming to increase awareness of menstrual health in the community, to generate income to support education and transport needs, to advocate and facilitate the inclusion, access and economic empowerment. The project set out to empower young women and men who are living with disabilities in the Chegutu branch as well as to assist the poor rural girls with hygienic and reusable sanitary wear at a very low cost. Many people tend to discriminate people living with disabilities, they are viewed as useless to the society, but yet being physically challenged does not mean inability to do some other things. So as a Council thought this would be a better way to create a platform for the young people living with disabilities to feel appreciated, loved and useful to the society. At the same time they get little income for their own survival. Many people think that gender is about femininity and masculinity, but women living with disabilities as well as men are also being discriminated against in this society we live in despite all the efforts of gender equality being advocated for in the constitution. Many people think that gender should only be about uplifting the woman but at the same time we are neglecting the man as well. So in this project we seek to empower both young men and women living with disabilities who are unemployed to help us manufacture the sanitary wear. These young men and women are able that would be sold to the poor girls who cannot afford to buy the unusable sanitary pads for maybe about $2 per month which is quite an non start for those who cannot afford.

The project has benefited 45 people of whom 90% are women.  30 people direct beneficiaries. There were 15 indirect beneficiaries. Chegutu Municipality allocated $500 to this project. In cash or in kind contributions by partner Leonard Chishire amounted to $1500.The total budget for the project is $2000. The Council used a quantitative methodology, the community score card is a tool used to identify the issues to be monitored on a quarterly basis. The purpose of the score rating is to monitor whether service provision is improving, remaining static or getting worse during the course of the project period. The problems involved or identified will be resolved jointly between the organization and the community. NB the first port of call is the review of the plan of action. The score ranges from 0-10. Where 0 represents the worst case scenarios or complete unavailability of services, whilst a score of 10 will represent the idea of services expected. Focus Group Discussion are also done to monitor and evaluate the project, during data analysis, information from all respondents will be treated confidentially.

Some of the challenges that that the group has faced includes poor consumption due to negative attitudes at every level of community by both educated and non-educated people. Lack of sound and sustainable transport to enable the participant to reach their offices, lack of support with requisite assistive devices due to budgetary constraints and insufficient legislative framework to compel all institution so that they can be able to accommodate people, lack of funds to build user-friendly buildings, male resistance in easy acceptance of such types of programs. To overcome these challenges, the council had to continue mobilising funds in any possible way and there are also volunteers who carry the participants to and from the office whenever there is need. This has really helped in overcoming shortage of transport.

Primrose Mutandwa aged 16 years, the husband is 18 years old and their daughter is 1year 5months says,. ”Being a young women really disheartens crying over spill of water will never change anything. I wish l would have listened before l would be living a better life. At the moment l am staying at my in-laws place sleeping in a squatter room. We used to sleep with hunger due to no money, l sometimes couldn’t buy peanut butter for my daughter and she would eat once per day. However l thank YMCA for supporting me.’ During the, motion to promote the girl child as well as young person’s recognition we have since moved a motion for youth friendly health corners. This project has created a conducive environment for young people to ask about sexual reproductive health and also speak out sensitive issues such as STIs and unplanned pregnancies. Chegutu District Hospital and Chinengundu clinics have created a section for young people where there will go and be treated freely and the community is responding positively.

This project can be replicated through the enrollment of an organized group that can market the products. The income generated will also help in sustaining the demands of the project .Chegutu will also conduct capacity building workshops to ensure that there is proper acceptance throughout the project cycle. This project can be cascaded through working with schools and women organization to mobilize women and girls so that they can be educated on issues of puberty, menstrual hygiene and to motivate them to avoid school dropouts.