Lesotho Queen Masenate Seeiso has expressed her gratitude to everyone that heeded the call to make the ‘Hlokomela Banana’ (Care for Girls) project a success.
On Friday the Queen hosted an annual business breakfast in appreciation to the corporate sector and individuals that honoured their pledges to ensure that no girl child misses school because they cannot afford the sanitary towels.
The Hlokomela Banana initiative remains the Queen’s priority project. She says she was alarmed after seeing how many girls missed school because of lack of access to basic sanitary towels.
“Something had to be done, this followed a call to friends, family members and business communities to raise funds and collect sanitary wear, to ensure there are no drop-out in Lesotho because of sanitary towels.”
Organisers of the initiative are adamant that despite challenges, their target to reach all schools in Lesotho will be realized and the government will see the need to do more.
Minister of Education Mokhele Moletsane says:”We also considering in our ministry of education maybe convincing cabinet that we do need a budget particularly for sanitary towels, however you must be aware that we are many stakeholders, but it is a primary responsibility for the ministry of social development, they come to us to assist.”
“So we will definitely work together with the ministry to of social development that maybe we work together to sees ways of maybe introducing this as a government program, to fill a supply free of sanitary pads in the school setup. So we are definitely considering that.”
But while the modalities are being investigated, the queen has called on everyone to make contributions, no matter how small.
The initiative started in 2016, has now has achieved nearly a quarter of its there year goals, and continue to grow, but it is now up to Basotho to make the dream a reality.
