Five learners donate sanitary towels to school in rural area

Five Capricorn High School (Cappies) learners came up with an initiative called ‘Bereka Mosadi’ which aims to assist female learners in rural schools with sanitary products to prevent them from missing lessons due to their menstrual cycle.
The group, with the assistance of Limpopo First Lady Margaret Mathabatha and Office of the Premier employee responsible for Transversal Employee Health and Wellness Programmes, Tlakale Nkadimeng recently donated 20 boxes of sanitary towels to learners at Lesetsi Primary School in Lesetsi village, Ga-Mphahlele.
The group is made up of Tsebo Sekole (founder), Mahlogonolo Nkadimeng, Sagale Sodi, Mahlatse Talane and Refiloe Phala. Tsebo emphasised that she had pitched the idea to Cappies headmaster Lucas Chuene who allowed the group to come up with fundraising ideas. One such an idea was to request their fellow learners to pay to wear a ‘doek’ to school for a day. They managed to raise approximately R1 670 that enabled the purchase of 14 boxes of sanitary towels to which a donor company contributed six more.
“Bereka Mosadi is a campaign by women for women and its purpose is to address issues faced by women in the society. It is still in its early days but we are planning to assist many schools in the future. We are targeting schools in deep rural areas because we believe they are mostly affected,” she explained.
Nkadimeng indicated that she was asked by the group to help them facilitate the donation. She stressed that this was a great initiative and that they requested the benefiting school to have a register for learners to sign when they receive the sanitary towels during their menstrual cycle.
She added that they were going to visit the school again to monitor the dispensation process. Nkadimeng reckoned that parents of female learners in urban areas can afford to buy the sanitary towels that is why they are targeting schools in rural areas.
She indicated that they were assisted by Department of Health employee, Irin Mphahlele to identify the school because her job includes visiting communities to donate food parcels to the less fortunate hence she saw the need at the school. She concluded by commenting the group for a job well done and reiterated that such initiatives are needed to help people who can’t afford certain things.

Story: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za