This week, the founder of Team Free Sanitary Pads, Nokuzola Ndwandwe, wrote to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to officially petition Parliament for an urgent motion for a Menstrual Health Rights Bill.
"In essence, we believe, based on our work on the ground, that in a country where period poverty affects over seven million young girls, whereby in South Africa they miss out on large amounts of school time due to lack of access to menstrual health and hygiene management products to manage their period.
"This further calls for menstrual health paid leave to be incorporated in the amendments of labour law, among our demands on what an ideal menstrual health rights bill and law would take into account as civil society. Ndwandwe said such a bill would"make a huge difference in bringing about socioeconomic justice and specifically allow women the freedom to participate in the South African economy without being hindered by lack of resources to manage a natural biological process which is menstruation".Ndwandwe asked Mapisa-Nqakula to refer their submission to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.