Non-Governmental Organisations have called on the government to fast track the process of supplying sanitary towels for free in public schools. About 50 days of schooling are missed by learners in rural schools each year as they cannot afford to buy sanitary towels.
The Lexis Nexis and Imbumba Foundation handed over sanitary towels to over 700 school girls in two schools in the Eastern Cape as part of the Trek4Mandela initiative.
“There is just so much opportunity to do so much more; it’s not just the girls we want to look after, we want to include the programmes that will include the boys as well. This is a step in that direction, but the important thing is, people are happy to support a cause when they see the results, so to be able to share what we’ve done today will help us get more fundraising next time. So when we did our Mandela beach walk we had such good support and to be able to follow it through to say this is what your support did and to actually see the outcome of it will help us generate more support,” says Manager at LexisNexis, Lee-Anne King.
Grade 12 learner, Amila Mtyhoki says; “The children do not know how to ask from other people to buy them sanitary pads, and as much as it’s not a public issue, so it’s not publicly most talked about, therefore as girls it’s so hard to talk about being on periods and the cycle, now the people that came here have helped us a lot.”
