KZN college manufactures low cost sanitary towels
Young people from the community will also be trained and become distributors of the SABS approved sanitary towels
THE Coastal TVET College is responding to the call for affordable sanitary towels for women in KZN.
Students at the College Skills Training Centre in Hammersdale have been manufacturing low cost sanitary towels.
Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Buti Manamela, who visited the college earlier this week, applauded the initiative.
‘This is an example of optimal use of relevant resources to provide innovative training, using leading technology to skill a diverse community and to manufacture quality products at the lowest possible price,’ Manamela said.
The centre also trains young people in the community who will become distributors of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) approved towels.
Manamela said this this will make a difference to students who are unable to afford them.
‘It has been widely reported that that young girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years have resorted to using old clothes, rags and newspapers, among others, because they cannot afford sanitary towels.
‘The use of these substitutes exposes the young women to serious health risks,’ he said.
According to research, lack of access to sanitary towels often results in young women from poor backgrounds being absent from school.
Girls who cannot afford sanitary towels miss approximately 5 days of school a month, which amounts to 60 missed school days a year.
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