Dignity. Period!
Reading Maureen Lipman’s column in the Guardian G2 today (scroll past the whitterings about buses) reminded me that I meant to blog about this campaign to get sanitary protection for women in Zimbabwe. When I was being a supportive girlfriend at Jo’s conference earlier this year, I heard Tabitha Khumalo speak - not just about this campaign, but about the struggle for freedom in Zimbabwe. She’s one of the deputy secretaries of the MDC, and a Zimbabwean trade unionist. She spoke about trying to be dignified whilst pressing for change, and how hard that was without sanitary protection; about being thrown into prison countless times, put in a cell flooded with water and sewage meaning she had to stand constantly; and she told us that on her return to Zimbabwe, she expected to be gaoled and to have her passport confiscated to stop her leaving again. It was extraordinary, and extraordinarily moving.
You can hear her being interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour here.
Hello Antonia
I am a member of UNISON’s NEC and we invited Tabitha Khumalo to speak at our conference in June. She made such a moving speech the whole conference was in tears. We raised a fair amount of money for her sanitary protection campaign and we are writing to branches and regions for their financial support. Sanitary protection is something our members take for granted so they will be shocked to hear of the Zimbabwean women’s plight. Your blog came up when I googled the campaign
After hearing Thabitha speak at UNISON’s National Conference I had to do something to highlight the plight of the women in Zimbabwe. So with the help of my local UNISON Branch in Swindon have organised a Dignity. Period Benefit Concert on the 30th September in the Mailcoach, Swindon.
The concert is FREE and is about raising awareness although a collection will be held.
For those in the area local bands will be playing throughout the day starting at 2.00pm.
P.S. We have had abusive phone calls from Robert Magabee supporters who have called us liars and that Thabitha and other Zimbabwean women living in Swindon are only asylum seekers who are not “true” Zimbabweans. These callers have even stated that information about the concert has been asked for by the Zimbabwean Government.
How’s that for just a small local event?
wake up blair et al
blind as usual