August 18, 2022
British media: High inflation exacerbates 'sanitation poverty' of African women.
Reference News Network reported on August 18. According to a report on the website of the Thomson Reuters Foundation in the United Kingdom on August 16, 15-year-old Ghanaian student Juliette Opoku was once humiliated by blood on her school uniform, so she would be absent every month. The class lasted for about a week because her parents couldn't afford to buy sanitary pads for her.
In the West African country, where inflation is around 32 percent, the price of a pack of sanitary pads has more than doubled to 12 cedi from 5 Ghanaian cedi ($0.59) last year, forcing companies like Oppo Poor families like the Ku family can only spend their money on food rather than hygiene products.
"I played truant because once my school uniform got dirty during my period and the boys made fun of me. It made me lose my confidence," Opoku said.
"Sanitary pads are so expensive...I sometimes use toilet paper, baby diapers or strips during my period," she said.
Global inflation has pushed up the cost of sanitary pads in many African countries, forcing more girls to use unhygienic alternatives that can lead to infection and infertility, health experts and charities say.
ActionAid, which advocates for women and girls, found that the price of a pack of sanitary pads jumped 117 percent in Zimbabwe and 50 percent in the Democratic Republic of Congo in April compared with January.
Charities say this could have dire consequences for millions of African girls - affecting their education, health and dignity, possibly forcing them to engage in sex trafficking with older men - and ultimately exacerbating gender inequality.