Johannesburg - Socks stuffed with sand, pieces of bark and old rags are all stand-ins for thousands of South African girls who can’t afford sanitary pads and tampons.
Despite years of campaigns to distribute free tampons and pads, an estimated one in three girls miss up to five days of school a month because they can’t afford sanitary products.
Now a new campaign run by Transnet’s Teenage Health Programme is distributing for free a new product - a menstrual cup designed specifically for teenagers - to thousands of schoolgirls.
Loren Loubser, one of three women who runs the programme in the Western Cape, says free sanitary pad campaigns are not sustainable.
“The girls are dependent on someone coming in with pads they use tampons or sanitary pads for longer than they should and that it’s unhygienic and uncomfortable,” Loubser said.
She hopes the distribution of the menstrual cup will be a solution. A menstrual cup is a small and soft reusable silicone cup that can last up to five years. It can be cleaned with toilet paper until the end of each period when a small amount of boiling water is needed for sterilisation.
Transnet is handing out 10 000 menstrual cups called “Mina”.
“Menstruation is a taboo topic, but it’s part of our normal bodily function, so Mina is designed specifically for young girls,” said Mina co-founder and spokeswoman Dr Mashadi Motlana.
Loubser and her team reach out to rural schoolgirls through workshops focused on empowerment and self-love. The menstrual cup is handed out along with a journal and a “dignity bag” with beauty supplies, toiletries and school supplies.
The girls are given instruction on how to use the Mina, the Zulu word for “mine”.
“We’ve seen an overwhelmingly positive reaction to Mina,” said Motlana.”It’s something that women choose - it’s not just something for poor girls.”
The educational initiative has three sessions. By the end of the sessions, almost all the girls were using the cup, said Zaakira.
“So many of these girls are living with granny and on grants, and Mina can change their lives for the better,” said Mahomed.
“Mina helps the young girls stay away from men with money, and it is a step towards breaking the cycle of poverty.”
Kate Paterson, an attorney for Section 27, says that sanitation systems at rural schools are so dangerous that girls may skip school even if they have pads and tampons.
Paterson said that rural school toilets are on average 50 to 100 metres away from classrooms, where they are unsupervised, frequently vandalised and the sites of assaults and rapes.
“Learners report not feeling safe going to the toilet, fears disproportionately (felt) by girls,” Paterson said.
“Girls need to use the toilets more often than boys. During their periods, many would rather miss school than be forced to use the toilets more frequently, even if they have access to sanitary wear.”
Because a menstrual cup needs to be changed only once every eight to 12 hours, Paterson said she believes it would be “extraordinarily helpful” in keeping girls from needing to use the toilet at school.
And while home toilets are frequently also unsafe, pupils are more likely to have toilet paper at home and access to a cleaner toilet used by fewer people.
Despite some of the benefits, Mina has struggled to see wide adoption, particularly in areas of KwaZulu-Natal.
“In rural schools, cups haven’t been received so well because of traditional cultural values, especially those around virginity,” said Prudence Mabele, the director of the non-profit Positive Women’s Network (PWN), which has partnered with Mina.
“Many girls are not comfortable putting anything inside them,” said Mabele.
For these girls, the PWN suggests a reusable pad called Subz which can attach to underwear. The pad can last for three years, and requires soap and water to be cleaned.
“The menstrual cup is not a panacea. We’re not saying this is the only solution, but women should have choices,” said Motlana.
Mina is also supporting the campaign to remove VAT from sanitary products.
On May 27, the Mina cup will be officially launching to the public, in time for Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28.
Julia Clark - Riddell
I first saw a menstrual cup when I was aged 12.
I was walking through a grocery store back in the US with my mother, who was showing me what sanitary products to use when I got my period. Unbleached, organic cotton tampons were best, she said.
“But the real natural women use menstrual cups,” my mother said, pointing to a small plastic-looking cup in a cardboard box. I always considered my mother to be an earth-worshipping, body-loving woman, so I asked her if she used one. “No, they’re too gross,” she said.
“I would never go that far.”
The thought of a menstrual cup also made me squeamish, so I avoided menstrual cups. I spent the next eight years struggling to manage my period. I would always forget to bring extra tampons to school with me, and then panic and ask all my female classmates to loan me theirs. I brought sweatshirts to tie around my waist if any blood leaked through. I dreaded the shame of any boy knowing what was happening with my body.
And then one day last year my friend told me she had just started using a menstrual cup. She said it was better than anything she’d ever tried. I heard my mother’s voice echo in the back of my head, but I shoved it down, marched out to a health shop and bought my own.
I’ve been using a menstrual cup for over a year now, and I love it. Now, I have a period experience that is so comfortable that I sometimes forget that I am menstruating. I no longer have to spend money on products that clog landfills and put harmful chemicals in my body. I feel as if I might even know what it is like to be a man - never sidelined by some monthly wave, crashing over my social and professional obligations like a derailed train on schedule.
But I am lucky. I am a white woman from an upper middle-class American family. I could choose to buy the menstrual cup for myself in a shop round the corner from my house. I could comfortably use it because I never had to worry about access to a clean and private bathroom. I could ignore the few small instances of judgment from my peers and even my mother. I could go back to tampons and pads any time I wanted.
A menstrual cup made 22 percent of my days on this planet more enjoyable and more carefree. Not every woman is comfortable with menstrual cups, but every woman should have the opportunities and the resources to welcome their period without dread. The “Mina cup” is a plastic cup-like device used by woman during their menstrual cycle.
It works as a substitute for tampons and sanitary pads. It is reusable and can last for up to five years.
Saturday Star