30 Jul 2019

The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) will this week begin a nationwide mission of donating sanitary towels in schools and to underprivileged women in communities, the coalition’s deputy leader, Mr Dumelang Saleshando has said.

Addressing the media in Tlokweng on July 29, Mr Saleshando, who is also president of Botswana Congress Party (BCP), said the UDC wanted to prove to the public that their manifesto pledge to provide sanitary pads was realistic.

“We will conduct a rollout of free sanitary pads, starting in the Gaborone Central constituency on July 31 at Marothodi shops in Notwane ward, followed by Maruapula ward at the Choppies store on August 1. 

From August we will then be spreading the scheme nationwide at schools and areas where there are underprivileged people for the next few months.  After the general elections, we are confident the UDC will be elected to power and we will make the free sanitary pads rollout a government policy,” Mr Saleshando said.

He also said the UDC would release a detailed plan that would point out where and when their donations would take place countrywide.

Furthermore, he said globally, there was concern about the occurrence of what is internationally termed ‘period poverty’, which is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene facilities or their waste management. 

Mr Saleshando said period poverty affected over 40 million women and girls globally, adding that it came with a sense of embarrassment.

And some school going girls ended up missing out on their classes when experiencing menstrual cycles.

Although this announcement came just after a weekend where the UDC manifesto proposal of free sanitary pads was derided by Francistown South Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Wynter Mmolotsi at an Alliance for Progressives (AP) rally in Gaborone, Mr Saleshando said their decision to donate pads was not a knee jerk reaction to that criticism and the public debate that ensued.

He said the fact that they were ready to begin dispensing the sanitary pads this week was an indication that they had already planned the nationwide donation, as opposed to reacting to the weekend criticism of the feasibility of their manifesto plan.

He said where possible, some of the sanitary pads they donated would be branded with the UDC symbol, but should they be elected to power, they would start a similar government programme without party political symbols being used.

He further said their manifesto contained realistic steps and sufficient detail to attain the promises they made, stating that they would pursue construction of roads, new airports in tourist priority areas as part of their plans to generate jobs, and that their envisaged P3 000 minimum wage would be introduced in phases to cushion job losses in private companies. Ends