Keabetswe hopes to empower and uplift women, youth
Keabetswe Keith Mosumane is a social entrepreneur from Bergnek and the co-founder of Bergnek Community Projects.
He told Polokwane Observer that Bergnek is a community development, non-profit organisation aimed at empowering and uplifting women and youth from his community.
“We focus on education, food security, water and sanitation as well as infrastructure and leadership development within the community. My dream is to help build a clinic one day,” he said.
Keabetswe says he delved into the projects after the tragic loss of his his two-year-old son to food poisoning in 2008.
“The community does not have a clinic and my son died while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. It’s never easy losing a loved one, let alone a child. As a parent, you look forward to seeing your child go to school and becoming a pivotal member of society,” he explained.
After discussing issues that affect the community with his team, they realised that water and sanitation continue to be a problem, which is when they decided their first project would be buying a water pump in 2011 to help alleviate water scarcity in the area.
“We also realised that many young girls, in our village and other villages across the country, miss school due to a lack of sanitary towels. These girls end up using primitive alternatives such as newspaper and rags, which is ineffective and unhygienic.
“Research shows that girls miss up to 50 school days annually due to menstruation. In most rural communities alone a shocking 300 million girls and women are under monthly house arrest,” he explained.
Keabetswe says they then began manufacturing re-usable cloth sanitary pads which are washable and can last up to a year. “They are cost effective and environmentally friendly and we also design, make and supply quality, cost effective, school uniforms. To some women these cloth pads are not an option, some even use menstrual cups,” he said.
“To date, we have supplied sanitary pads to companies and individuals around the country and we hope to raise enough money to build a community healthcare centre soon,” he concluded.
For more information Keabetswe can be contacted via e-mail at keith@girlstuffperiod.org.
