Seidy Quetzal’s “Don’t Tax My Femininity Campaign’ Celebrated By House of Representatives

Seidy Quetzal, a Belizean student who recently returned home from studying in Taiwan, is the activist who lobbied for the government to remove all taxes from female sanitary products. Quetzal’s “Don’t Tax My Femininity Campaign” has been in the works since January. She was present at today’s House Meeting where she spoke with reporters.

Seidy Quetzal

Seidy Quetzal, Activist

“I started this initiative in January. I wanted to get the facts first. I did a survey within the Belmopan community. I went on Sun Up on 7 also issuing this survey so we could basically say we got an overview of all of Belize and it is interspersing to see that employed women and unemployed have a struggle when buying these sanitary products. I got the information first, I prepared a fact sheet and I did my lobbying to the Minister of Human Development, the Deputy Prime minister, Special Envoy, National Women’s Commission and the Minister of Health. Now this is an issue that needs to be addressed in all angles when it comes to education with regards to menstruation. Also it is a health issue to have good health issue to have good health management when it comes to menstruation. The taxes that are added on to sanitary products is twenty percent importation tax, then after the twenty percent you add three percent environmental tax, then the twelve point five percent GST. So in total we have thirty five point five percent of taxes added to sanitary products. Today I am happy to say that we are at zero.”