For years, many girls at Kadzi Secondary School in Mbire silently endured humiliation, discomfort and missed lessons due to the lack of safe and dignified sanitation facilities tailored to their needs.
Some stayed home during menstruation, while others struggled through lessons without privacy, clean washing spaces or proper toilets. Girls living with disabilities faced even greater challenges navigating inadequate infrastructure at the rural school.
Now, a major intervention targeting menstrual health, disability inclusion and girls’ education is transforming lives after ActionAid Zimbabwe, with support from ActionAid Sweden, began constructing 10 girl- and disability-friendly toilets designed to restore dignity and help vulnerable learners remain in school.
The project is expected to benefit more than 520 learners at Kadzi Secondary School in Mbire under the Mbire Local Rights Programme.
The new facilities include two specially designed girl-friendly toilets fitted with Blair toilet seats that allow girls to sit comfortably during menstruation. The facilities will also include washing areas, mirrors and cupboards for storing menstrual hygiene dignity kits during emergencies.
Two disability-friendly toilets are also being constructed with ramps, handrails, mirrors and specially adapted seating facilities to improve accessibility for girls living with disabilities.
One of the disability-friendly toilets will include washing facilities, while another has been specifically designed without washing facilities to cater for different user needs and structural requirements.
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In addition, six standard squat-hole toilets are being built to ease pressure caused by rising enrolment at the school.
The intervention comes at a time when poor sanitation infrastructure continues to undermine girls’ education across many rural schools, where inadequate toilets, lack of privacy and poor menstrual hygiene facilities often force learners to miss classes or drop out altogether.
In Mbire, the situation has been worsened by increasing enrolment numbers that have stretched already limited infrastructure beyond capacity.
ActionAid Zimbabwe said improving girl-friendly and disability-inclusive sanitation infrastructure remains critical in protecting the rights, dignity and educational future of vulnerable learners.
The organisation continues to advocate for school sanitation systems that prioritise dignity, privacy and inclusivity for girls, particularly in remote and marginalised communities.
Education and gender advocates have repeatedly noted that many rural girls continue to face challenges that boys rarely encounter in school environments, including unsafe toilets, inadequate menstrual hygiene support and limited disability-friendly infrastructure.
The intervention is also expected to strengthen broader national efforts promoting gender equality, menstrual health awareness and disability inclusion within Zimbabwe’s education sector.
For many learners at Kadzi Secondary School, the new facilities represent more than just toilets — they symbolise dignity, confidence and a renewed opportunity to remain in school without fear, shame or exclusion.
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