Support Berea brothers’ pad drive

THE menstrual health management of girls and young women in South Africa is an issue that does not receive enough attention and as a result young South African girls lack access to sanitary products.

This also leads to high levels of absenteeism from school.

When Berea brothers, Izah and Akani were told by their mother, Latoya Mukansi, that some young girls are forced to miss out on school due to the fact that they don’t have sanitary pads they became determined to help.

“Izah was learning about puberty at school and he came to me with questions. I told him and Akani about what girls go through and how some girls have to miss up to five days of school if they don’t have access to pads,” said Latoya.

“They were both shocked because they never have to miss school, they’re both very involved at their school and they hate to miss out on anything. They were both affected by how much of a disadvantage this time away from school placed the girls at,” she added.

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The boys then set out to start a pad drive to collect as many pads as possible which they would then donate to a school. They chose local school, St Augustine’s Primary Catholic School.

Akani said he then started to spread the word at school.

“I announced in class that my brother and I were doing sanitary pad collection. Some of the other kids laughed at me, but my teachers started to approach me and told me that they would like to donate,” he said.

The initiative officially commenced on Tuesday, March 8, on International Women’s Day.

“We officially got all our ducks in a row for their campaign on Women’s Day which was a complete coincidence, and we received the first donations on that Tuesday,” said their father, Ntsako Mukansi.

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“Not all of the donations have been pads, some people have made cash donations which we then use to purchase pads,” said Ntsako.

Izah and Akani have received numerous cash and pad donations in the span of a week.

“At this point we have 404 pads and 87 packs in total,” said Akani.

Despite the tremendous headway the pair have already made, they said they are far from their goal.

“Our ultimate goal is to collect 500 packs in total. At the beginning we had a lower number but when we saw how willing people are to support us we raised the bar,” said Izah.

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