ENTREPRENEUR Anitta Neshiri has described period poverty as a pandemic in Africa as her organisation Girl Talk ZW spearheads a social responsibility drive to collect and distribute sanitary ware to less privileged girls in Zimbabwe.
Period poverty is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities, or waste management.
Dubbed the biggest pads drive, the initiative is meant to end period poverty, said Neshiri.
“The biggest pads drive is an initiative that seeks to provide and empower young girls with sanitary pads across Zimbabwe, especially the less privileged girls from rural areas,” she said.
“This initiative is meant to improve the livelihoods of the girl child. The mother of this drive is Girl Talk Zimbabwe, a girl child organisation which was launched in October 2019.
"Our teams work across all sectors by partnering with leading foundations, businesses, and government.
"The biggest pads drive seeks to eradicate period poverty in Zimbabwe, especially the remote areas where the majority of young girls can barely afford to buy a pack of sanitary pads. For the past two years we have been distributing sanitary pads to poor communities of Zimbabwe. Our main target being girls at school as we do not want them to miss school due to lack of sanitary wear."
Neshiri added that period poverty has led many girls into using unsafe methods to deal with menstruation.
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“Period poverty is a serious pandemic in Africa and thousands of young girls every single day are failing to purchase pads because money is out of reach to many,” she said.
“These results in them resorting to using leaves, rugs and even cow dung hence exposing them to diseases such as cancer.
“Our work as Girl-Talk Zimbabwe has been based on distributing high-quality sanitary pads to girls and women in maternity, rural area schools, community hospitals, and women's clinics.”
Neshiri is a young entrepreneur based in Bulawayo.
She holds a degree in Tourism and hospitality management and is a marketing executive by profession.
She is a former beauty Queen (Miss Bulawayo Jnr 2010) and an award winning social entrepreneur. She is the founder and president of Girl Talk Zimbabwe. She is also a Forbes Africa under 30 Zim delegates 2023.
