uMhlanga company’s mission is to eradicate period poverty
After spotting an opportunity to work with corporates who were investing heavily in eradicating period poverty, ‘The Red Movement’ was born.
GROWING up, all Lesego Mpyana wanted to be was an educator like both her parents.
Instead, her path lead her to study an Honour’s Degree in Marketing and Communication at the University of Johannesburg. She is now the co-director director of Move Africa, a company based at Pencil Club in uMhlanga.
Her passion is to implement sustainable methods in alleviating period poverty.
While at university she met a tutor colleague who told her about an NGO called TEACH SA that recruits top graduates in the fields of math, science and English across universities in SA, trains them to become well-rounded teachers, and places them in under-resourced and under-performing schools across the country.
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“I jumped at the opportunity to teach and started the rigorous application process. I was appointed as an ambassador for TEACH SA which meant that I was going to be an educator for two years,” said Mpyana, who eventually got to fulfil her dream of following in her parents’ footsteps for a bit.
She was placed at a school in Soshanguve, Pretoria where she taught English. She soon learnt that girls were missing school consistently and came to understand that it was because their parents simply couldn’t afford sanitary products.
“Together with other educators, we donated pads but found out we had more and more girls but never enough pads,” she said.
Mpyana was left with an awareness of period poverty and the impact it has on the girl child.
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A few years down the line, her husband, Joseph, worked as a CSR manager for a company doing work across Africa, who encountered the same issue with period poverty. The pad drives were just not sustainable.
“At that point, period poverty was a conversation in our home, and we became curious to explore sustainable ways for girls to manage their periods. I then tried a few products, and I just fell in love with the menstrual cup,” she added.
“We wanted to create a campaign that gave people the opportunity to get in on the work that we are doing by spreading more awareness of period poverty and purchasing a menstrual cup on behalf of a girl who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access one,” said Mpyana , who is also the director of Move Africa.
“The directive is to create and manage sustainable corporate social responsibility campaigns for companies looking to invest in socio-economic development. Our areas of focus are eradicating period poverty, gender-based violence and mental health,” said Mpanya.
“Move Africa was born because we wanted to do something about period poverty and as a result, The Red Movement campaign was birthed,” she added.
When Mpanya is not busy trying to make a difference in the lives of schoolgirls, it’s all about family.
“I love spending time with my family. We have two small kids who love to be outside playing. As a family, we love going for walks on the beach, visiting the animals at Burnedale, and having picnics. In my free time, I love to binge-watch a good series on Netflix,” she said.
Her advice to women around the world:
“Just go for it! Do not wait until you have it all figured out. Every expert was once a novice.”
Follow @Move_Africa_Co on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Spread the word on The Red Movement to help create more awareness of period poverty and get your company involved by emailing info@moveafricaco.com.
