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FROM
CUBA
Cuban women must register to be able to
buy sanitary pads
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April 18 (www.cubanet.org)
- Women in Villa Clara province must have
registered by April 16 to be allowed to
buy their allotment of sanitary pads seven
times a year, according to an announcement
by CMHW, provincial radio net.
In order to register for this census, women
between the ages of 10 and 55 had to present
an ID card and their ration book; the registration
procedure lasted for three days and involved
long lines of women waiting to register
and a number of health care workers pulled
from other duties to work full time on the
census.
The broadcast public service announcement
explained that a higher-quality sanitary
pad than the ones available previously will
be distributed seven times a year and that
the price will go up from 80 cents to 1.20
pesos.
Several women commented that seven times
a year will be a lot better than the present
two or three times a year these products
are now available.
At one time, domestically-made sanitary
pads could be bought freely at pharmacies,
but in the beginning of the 90s, with the
end of Soviet subsidies, the pads became
subject to rationing, and women had to resort
to make-do methods, such as using pieces
of diapers, towels, or mosquito netting
and washing them, or obtaining the proper
product at dollar stores, if they had dollars.
Versión
original en español
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