ACTSA (Action for South Africa) held a rally for Zimbabwe this Saturday in Trafalgar Square. About a thousand people turned up to support their campaign for dignity for women around the world, mainly in Zimbabwe. The focus of their campaign was the great difficulty Zimbabwean women have in finding sanitary towels. With inflation topping 1600%, one pack of sanitary towels costs more than 50% of the average monthly wage for women in Zimbabwe. This has resulted in millons of Zimbabwean women being forced to replace tampons with newspapers and dirty rags, a practice which has led to vaginal infections for which there is no available medication.
Speakers included Lovemore Matombo and Lucia Matibenga from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the Chairperson of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe Kate Hoey and the NUS Women’s Officer Kat Stark. They talked of the plight of the country and specifically the women in Zimbabwe, calling for donations to help them get the sanitary towels they needed. There were also songs from the Zimbabwean protest singer Viomak before a mass procession took people back to the vigil that takes place every Saturday outside the Zimbabwean embassy on the Strand.
Comments
Display the following 10 comments