Youths campaign to help rural girls
Several youths from the city have set out to teach others the importance of good hygiene to one’s reputation and image.
POLOKWANE – The brains behind the concept, Mojalefa Shai and Olebeogeng Rapoo, and other youths from the city started the Hope for Hygiene initiative to inspire everyone to give special attention to their personal grooming and hygiene.
“Olebogeng and I have a company which specialises in the supply of cleaning detergents for both household and car care. Through our Hope for Hygiene initiative we collect sanitary towels which we aim to donate to impoverished girls in our communities. We see encouraging good hygiene as a way for us to instil and develop confidence in girl children to help them reach their full potential as well as help them stay in school. We started this initiative when we noticed most girl children, especially from rural areas, miss school when they menstruate because they cannot afford to buy sanitary essentials. This initiative relies solely on donations and without donations we fail to serve our communities and reach as many girl children as we would like. It is to be noted that Hope for Hygiene is not an initiative that takes place only once a year, it is an ongoing initiative which runs throughout the year and donations are welcome all year round,” Mojalefa explained.
On 21 July, the group of youngsters hosted their first outreach programme was at the National Botanical Gardens in Pretoria, part of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), where they pleaded with the community to donate sanitary towels for their initiative.
They plan to donate the sanitary towels collected to an estimated 400 girls by the end of October. During the campaign, they managed to collect 418 packs of sanitary towels.
