Over 500 000 sanitary products have been collected to help desperate women in Zimbabwe forced to use newspapers and rags as substitutes. Thabitha Khumalo, a human rights activist and founder of "Dignity, Period!", said a pack of 10 sanitary pads in Zimbabwe cost about 1.5 million Zimbabwean dollars (R100).

"The problem started in the late 1990s when a company manufacturing sanitary products relocated from Zimbabwe to South Africa. That's when we started feeling the pinch as prices of the remaining stock started escalating," Khumalo said. "Then in 2001/2002 we started getting sanitary pads from the black market, but the hygienic standards were not good."

Khumalo said women in Zimbabwe were now being subjected to domestic abuse as their spouses were mistaking infections acquired from using improper materials for sexually transmitted infections. Khumalo, who is also a member of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said the lack of sanitary products was a violation of women's rights to dignity.

"The global village always forgets to provide sanitary products in cases of disasters. They always assume that women can cope. There's always this talk of food and medical supplies, but none of basic things such as sanitary pads," said Khumalo. "Gone are the days when such things were taboo, because as women get infected they also infect their men."

Sustainable campaign
The donations were made possible with the help of British-based non-governmental organisation Action for Southern Africa (Actsa). The NGO raised money in the UK to help fund the campaign. "The response the campaign has been getting has been incredible. The idea has really caught the imagination even among men, who have come out in support," Euan Wilmshurst, the Actsa director, said.

He said the organisation was in negotiations with manufacturers on how to keep the campaign sustainable. Khumalo said the products would be distributed among women in rural areas, where the ZCTU would also hold public meetings to inform women of the dangers of using newspapers and rags.

On Monday, the groups were waiting for trucks from collection points across the country. The goods would be kept at Cosatu House in Johannesburg before being taken to Zimbabwe on Thursday. The ZCTU said the Zimbabwean government has agreed, in principle, to waive the duty payable on the products.

"We don't know what will happen when the trucks reach the border," Bright Chibvuri, a ZCTU spokesperson, said. "After all, the Zimbabwean government once denied food aid raised by the churches into the country." Among the supporters of the campaign are 5FM, Johnson and Johnson and Procter and Gamble. - Sapa