Chongwe
WHEN schoolgirls in Kumena, Kasenga and Hillcrest about 45 kilometres away from Chongwe town reach puberty, it is a gate way for their parents to marry them off.
For their parents and guardians, this is a way of shifting responsibilities attached to buying sanitary pads to their husbands.
The age of the man does not matter as long as the girl has reached puberty.
Lucy Sakala, one of the girls, reached puberty at 13 and when she got her first period, she asked her mother for sanitary pads.
Her mother dismissively suggested that she should find herself a husband to pay for her sanitary pads.
Two years later, Lucy could not continue with her school. She was forced to drop out of school at 15 when her widowed mother could no longer afford to pay for her school fees and buying sanitary pads.
This situation forced her mother to marry her off.
“My mother told me I could not go to school anymore because she had no money for schools fees. I was so bored at home. Each time I would ask her when I would start school. Her answer was that she did not have money. I had nothing to do and no money. My mother told me it would be best to look for a man so that he could buy me things I needed, like sanitary pads,” Lucy says.
The man who married Lucy only paid K500 for her to become his wife and a year later she had a baby boy.
She says being married off early was shocking to her because she wanted to be in school and pursue her dream.
“I felt frustrated and alone, forced to stay at home all day by a husband who restricted my movements. My parents struggled to send me to school until I was 15 and there I was, wasting my education by just staying at home,” she says.
Lucy’s story is not uncommon. Many girls in rural areas drop out of education when they begin menstruating because their schools lack proper washrooms or because they cannot afford costly sanitary products.
Peggy Miti, 44, says hundreds of girls in Chongwe are forced into child marriages by parents who are too poor to buy hygiene products.
As a mother, Mrs Miti says many girls in her area are pressured into having sex by boys who offer to buy them sanitary items in return.
Mrs Miti has hope in organisations which advocates for an end to child marriage to donatie sanitary pads in rural schools.
Girl’s menstrual health is still considered taboo subject in conservative rural communities countrywide.
“Even just the mention of buttocks, one can be taken to the traditional council. It is worse when one mentions about a private part to a parent or guardian. Such is considered sacred and only to be said to a husband not anyone,” Mrs Miti says.
For some time now, development experts say child marriage is a major barrier to girls’ education.
Repssi country director Kelvin Ngoma says girls who marry at a young age are often subjected to domestic violence, sexual abuse and social isolation.
Mr Ngoma says lack of formal and informal education in rural areas have reduced options of earning money, thereby leaving girls in child marriages dependent on their husbands.
Repssi is an NGO that advocates for an end to child marriage by training teachers in an effort to address psychosocial issues affecting children which include child marriage.
“Repssi is sensitising communities on psychosocial needs of the children by engaging the Government and local government authorities, traditional leaders, religious leaders, parents and caregivers, communities, and the children,” Mr Ngoma says.
Mr Ngoma says there is need to enforce laws and also providing incentives which will lessen school girl child dropouts.
U.N. children’s agency UNICEF has estimated around 50 percent of girls countrywide miss class because their schools lack separate toilets and washing facilities to help them manage their periods.
Many fall behind and end up quitting school. Once out of school they are more likely to be married off.
Although Zambia has banned child marriage, four in 10 girls are married off before they attain the age of 18 and one in 10 before 15, UNICEF says.
World Vision Zambia National Campaign Coordinator James Zimba says the lack of menstrual hygiene support for schoolgirls was a strong factor in the country’s high drop-out rate.
More than 40 percent of girls fail to complete primary school and only a fifth start secondary school, Mr Zimba says.
“Education is a very powerful tool in the prevention of child marriage. When girls are out of school because they cannot manage their periods it’s hard for them to avoid marriage,” Mr Zimba says.
Sanitary products could cost girls around K20 a month - a prohibitive price for many in rural areas.
In rural schools, menstruation comes with stigma and bullying especially when one stains their uniform or dress.
To keep safe and away from the embarrassment, instead girls often use old rags, dried leaves or grass or paper - sometimes tearing pages from school books.
To tackle the stigma, several aid agencies have set up menstrual hygiene clubs at schools across the country where girls can make their own reusable cotton sanitary pads with removable waterproof linings.
Mr Zimba says to reduce the cost of sanitary pads, there is need to ensure schools are empowered to make girls make their own sanitary pads.
“There is a lot of ignorance around periods. The effect on the girls was devastating: many skipped school to avoid the bullying. Some never returned,” Mr Zimba says.
At one school, Kumena, boys told this author that they thought girls who bled had been victims of sexual violence and drew demeaning pictures on the blackboard.
Kumena Boys Network chairperson Obert Mwale says an initiative to bring in boys to understand the anatomy of the girls has been formed.
“It is now that boys are included in some clubs, talking about the pads and issues of menstruation,” a pupil at Kumena Obert says.
Zambia is not the only country looking at providing free sanitary towels as a way to boost girls’ education levels. Kenya, Uganda are among the many developing countries that are still grappling with catalysts to child marriages like lack of sanitary pads.
Zambia has also promised to supply pads to schoolgirls - although aid agency WaterAid said Zambia is yet to commit any funding.
But Ministry of General Education permanent secretary Jobbicks Kalumba says the sanitary pads distribution in rural has started.
Dr Kalumba says the exercise is currently donor based.
"Our cooperating partners have started this process and it is all in the hope of reducing the burden than our girls face," Dr Kalumba says. PUBLISH IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON OCTOBER 11, 2020.
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