Written by: Shelly-Ann Weeks
First let me applaud the Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton and the Jamaica Moves Initiative for the work that they have been doing to bring more awareness about the unhealthy practices that we’ve adopted and how they are adversely affecting our health. I am especially supportive of their plans to move Jamaican schools into a healthier space. With all that said I do want to bring to the attention of the Minister and his team a growing demographic who seems to be left out of the overall health plan. Women. Yep, more than 50% of the population is living with a myriad of conditions that not only affect our overall health; it also negatively affects our quality of life.
Living in Pain
I’m talking about Female reproductive Health Issues, like fibroids, endometriosis, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Infertility, and Heavy Painful Periods. Over 70% of Jamaican women are affected by these issues, with symptoms can range from mild back spasms and spotting to chronic pain and hemorrhaging that only demonstrates how urgent the matter is. As a matter of fact it’s not a problem that only affects women, society on a whole suffers – a call to HR Managers in companies will give some idea how many days are lost because women are too sick to work. The productivity of the country is also at risk.
Cost of Being Woman
On top of the pain and inconvenience, the cost of treating these issues are very prohibitive and while some women are able to function with the symptoms, she still has to find ways to cope each month. The bottom line is, it’s very expensive to be a woman in this society and we are doing it while earning less than our male counterparts. Even for the necessities like menstrual products we have to shell out hundreds of dollars each month just so we can function while having a period.
Period Poverty
And what about the women and girls who cannot afford the products? Period Poverty is an issue that countries around the world are dealing with including Jamaica. While I don’t have the actual stats on how many women and girls in Jamaica are affected, if we use the School feeding program as a guide, I can estimate that almost 100,000 girls on this program are unable to afford lunch. The way I see it, if she can’t buy lunch, then she can’t afford the sanitary products she need when she’s menstruating.
We can fix it
Scotland recently announced that they will be making sanitary products free in public schools, making them the first country to do so. We are more than capable of addressing this in Jamaica we done so before with other issues, for example the spread HIV/AIDS. We have made condoms available in thousands of location across the country and have even been talking about putting them in schools to help young people reduce the number HIV and STD infections. I think this is important.
I also think that as a policy we must look at eradicating Period Poverty as well because, let’s face it, sex is a choice, period is not. We cannot continue to ignore the issues that affect women and girls and expect to meet the goals that we have set for ourselves as a nation. Because when we empower women, we empower our communities.