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BULAWAYO, Dec 13 (IPS) – Initially he danced for money, but later he realized he had to dance for sanitary pads to help poor girls and women. Now 29-year-old Proud Mugunhu gives dance lessons, earning 100 pads per session.
Mugunhu started his commercial dancing in the informal settlement of Epworth in Zimbabwe, east of Harare, the country’s capital, where he says he saw poor girls and women going without sanitary pads during menstruation.
Now Mugunhu, who has become a popular dancer, has become famous for fighting period poverty.
He (Mugunhu) not only dances to please the audience but has now chosen to dance to be rewarded with sanitary pads to pass on to the girls and women plagued by period poverty.
Inside and outside Zimbabwe, Mugunhu now dances at events where he has struck deals to receive sanitary towels as payment in his war against rampant poverty.
As a result, his dancing has caused many girls and women to move from using rags to something that gives them dignity and confidence.
“I started dancing in 2015 – dancing commercially at weddings. I only started dancing for sanitary pads last year and I am collecting as many sanitary pads as I can to help,” says Mugunhu.
“Growing up in Epworth, I saw a lot in terms of the ravages of poverty, especially among girls. So what I do is I teach dance to ordinary people, and I choose to get paid with sanitary pads so I can then use them to donate to poor girls and women.”
He claims he gets more than 100 pads per dance class he conducts.
“I just want to help people in need. I pray that I can get more sanitary pads so that I can give to many girls and women in need.”
The poverty Mugunhu witnessed growing up in Epworth forced him to take up dancing.
In 2019, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube made a surprise announcement that US$12.5 million had been allocated for the purchase of sanitary pads for poor rural girls in the country who had reached puberty.
Apparently the news brought joy to Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, then chairperson of the Zimbabwe Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education.
For years, she (Misihairambwi) passionately lobbied for the provision of sanitary napkins to schoolgirls, while also advocating for a tax regime that made sanitary napkins affordable to every woman in the country.
Whether the poor girls ultimately received free sanitary towels from the government remains unclear to this day.
But a top official at Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Women Affairs has claimed they will provide free sanitary pads to the country’s poor women and girls next year.
“Next year, we plan to work with women who love to sew to sew reusable sanitary pads, which they will give to girls and women for free,” said Lilian Matsika, chief director of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
With period poverty the norm in poor communities, women’s rights activists such as Bridget Mushayahanya called on the government to end the crisis.
“What we want is for our government to understand that menstruation is something women do not choose. If it were possible, Mushayahanya said: “I would like our government to work with other regional governments to make ‘pink tanks’, which means all the items women need during menstruation are available at very low prices or for free.
Chipo Chikomo, founder of an organization called Nhanga Trust, which produces reusable sanitary pads for girls, lamented poverty, which she said forced many to miss school during their periods.
“We see many girls walking long distances to school; This means that they do not go to school during their monthly menstrual cycle because they do not have sanitary pads to use during menstruation,” she told IPS.
Yet many, like Chikomo, complained of persistent period poverty. For others, like Anna Sande and Sharon Bare, heroic individuals like Mugunhu stand out as saviors for poor girls and women plagued by period poverty.
After this year’s elections, Sande became Epworth’s youngest mayor at the age of 23. He was put in charge of a poor local government where period poverty is common for many.
“I am so grateful for the help I have received from the proud Tatenda Mugunhu, who uses his dancing talent to collect sanitary pads to help poor girls and women in my community during their monthly periods,” Sande said in an interview with IPS.
Even ordinary Epworth residents like Sharon Bare can’t hide their joy as Mugunhu ends period poverty in their midst.
“I really appreciate everything Mugunhu does. I am so proud that he is doing something good to help poor girls and women get sanitary pads during menstruation,” Bare said.
Peace Hungwe, the founder of Peace Hub Zimbabwe, an organization that handles mental health cases in Harare, also showered Mugunhu with praise for his initiative to help poor girls and women overcome period poverty.
“First of all I would like to thank Proud. As his name suggests, he must be proud of himself. Very few people do what he does. For many poor girls and women, menstruation is a difficult time, leading them to engage in sex work just to get sanitary pads to use during menstruation,” she says.
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service