Photo:Mehrpouya H on Unsplash
At the end of December last year the Council of the City of Skopje, acting upon the amendment proposed by Councilor Teodora Krstevska, voted for an allotment of MKD 2 000 000 from the city budget for free menstruаl products for secondary schools.
”The amendments do not impose large financial liabilities and exclusively serve the citizens. However disappointed I might be by the fact that the majority of the councilors make decisions in accordance with their party ideology, I am still happy to have successfully advocated for an amount of MKD 2 000 000 to be provided for free hygiene menstrual products for girls in secondary schools as part of the annual public procurement of hygiene products, thereby mitigating the menstrual poverty problem,” posted Krstevska on her Facebook profile.
The girls in the secondary schools were supposed to receive the required products for menstrual hygiene last January. Unfortunately, 2022 is almost over and the girls are buying their own sanitary pads or other menstrual products when they have their period.
Meta.mk spoke with Councillor Teodora Krstevska and she explained that the reason why this decision was still not implemented is not known.
“The money remains stuck in the city budget. Every month I call the Education Department and they say that they are working on the strategies and implementation plans”, said Krstevska who says she has doubts that the City Hall had redirected the funds for some other purpose, but she did not know for what.
Meta.mk did not receive a concrete response from the City of Skopje why the Decision was not implemented and whether the funds were redirected for something else up to the moment of publishing. We sent the questions to the Communication with Media Office. The Education Department of the City of Skopje also did not respond to any our queries.
Jana Kocevska, women’s rights activist with Tiit Inc., back in June talking to Meta.mk stressed that the institutions give promises, but never deliver.
”We haven’t seen how this policy is realized, how it is implemented, what kind of products are procured”, said Kocevska at the time, stressing that free-of-charge sanitary pads in the schools will cost the State only 0,08 percent of its Budget.
Meta.mk sent questions to the City of Skopje during the month when the world was marking the importance of menstrual hygiene. However, there was no response.
The Decision to spend funds on free-of-charge sanitary pads for secondary school girls was a consequence of the study “Menstrual Justice” which was published last December by the protection of women’s rights activists from “Tiiiiit! Inc.” and “Reactor – Research in Action” according to which 81 percent of the secondary school girls believe that the schools need to provide free products for menstrual hygiene.
SOURCES:
– Teodora Krstevska’s post (29th December 2021) – checked 27.12.2022.
– From January the secondary school girls in Skopje will receive free menstrual products – (30.12.2021) article in Meta.mk – checked 27.12.2022 г.
– Menstrual hygiene is not a privilege – institutions promise, but do not deliver – article in Meta.mk (02.06.2022) – checked on 27.12.2022.
– Study on access to menstrual hygiene in the Republic of North Macedonia – Menstrual Justice – “Tiiiiit! Ink.” and “Reactor – Research in Action” (12.11.2021) – checked on 27.12.2022.
Intersectoral cooperation is required to overcome menstrual poverty news article in Meta.mk (12.11.2021) – checked on 27.12.2022.
