BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
The French Embassy in Zimbabwe is supporting a project which seeks to teach young women in Harare’s Hatcliffe Extension to make reusable sanitary pads with the aim of empowering them economically.
The project is being driven by a local organisation Young Achievement Sports for Development (YASD) which has been doing a lot of community work in Hatcliffe Extension, once a holding camp for urban migrants coming from different parts of Harare, for almost two decades.
This project is one of the 19, on women empowerment and climate which have received funding from the French Embassy in Zimbabwe following a call for proposals last year.
French deputy ambassador Anne Bourdy was in Hatcliffe Extension recently to monitor the progress made with regards to the project.
“The purpose of the visit by the French Embassy and the French Service of Corporation is to see the project on the ground that we are supporting. We opened a call for proposal last year and YASD was one of the projects on the sanitary pads that are being produced here,” Bourdy said in an interview with The Standard.
“This was one of the 19 projects selected by our steering committee composed of the French Embassy of course and some other partners including the EU, GIZ and some local associations. So we are now halfway through the implementation of the projects.
“There were two priorities with this call of proposal; women empowerment and climate. This project is within the women empowerment priority to give the opportunity to women to be autonomous and get some economic revenue by themselves,” she said
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The French Embassy committed between US$10 000 and US$40 000 for each of the 19 projects that made the grade and Bourdy revealed that they received up to 300 proposals.
Known as Female Resilience Economic Empowerment (FREE), the YASD project started in October last year by training 100 young women how to run and manage businesses as well as to make sanitary pads which have been distributed in the community for free.
“FREE is an economic project funded and supported by the French embassy in Zimbabwe targeting young women in Hatcliffe Extension and it is focusing one menstrual health hygiene whereby we have trained about 100 young women in the community on how to run and manage businesses.
“The project is focusing on the women producing reusable pads which are distributed in the community for free to help young women who do not have access to menstrual health and hygiene for products,” YASD spokesperson Joe Kaseka said.
