Moroka wants to rescue the girl child
A29-year-old Tshegofatso Moroka says the establishment of the ‘Rescue The Girl Child’ initiative was an unplanned one. She did not set out to do it. The young executive explained ed that how it came about was just a spur of the moment. “I happened to have been in a church hurch service in a village in Kgatleng District. As I sat in the service and surveyed the demographics raphics of the church, I couldn’t help but realise e that quite a few of the young congregants, especially the young girls, appeared to have some ome obvious social needs,” Moroka said.
She was quick to explain that this is not to sound obnoxious or in any shape pe or form to judge a book by its cover.
“It’s simply a case of what one ne may term ‘perceived needs’. Like many a rural ural setting in Botswana, the majority of the local al population is unemployed.”
So, it is when she made that hat mental observation in that church setting, tting, that she concluded that, since the church urch is a subset of the community, it was highly likely that other girls in the village e were facing similar economic hardships. s.
“Although I can’t say I have ever experienced what I believed they hey were experiencing, I couldn’t help p it but empathise and ask myself f what I could do to help, however small that help would be. Since I was struck by the apparent plight of those young girls, most of whom I assumed were either pre-teens or early teens in upper primary or lower middle school, I asked myself: ‘ What is a young teenage girl’s most common and urgent need?’ That’s when the idea of donating sanitary pads came to me.”
She explained that she has heard heartwrenching tales of young pubescent girls using makeshift rags, sponges, and even toilet paper as sanitary pads. She could not imagine the pain and plight of such. And if she could do something about it, she chose to give it a try. “Since I didn’t and don’t have the financial muscle, I then decided to start this ‘Rescue The Girl Child’ drive whereby I would sell my id idea to my close friends, asking them to donate sanitary pads that I would later donate to some girls at the village of Dikgonnye.”
Initially, her ide idea was only to collect as many sanitary pads as she could and simply go and donate them.
She im imagined a once-off thing. However, as she cast her idea wide, it gained massive m traction and interest and is n now evolving into an initiative that might m become an organisation that p periodically donates sanitary pads a across the country.
She added: “But of course it’s still very much at a very infant stage at the moment”. m
In conclusion, she stated that the interest has been encouraging, and thanked Batswana for not on only making enquiries, but also making m donations and also he helping her with ideas to finetu tune this initiative.
“I’ve been greatly encouraged even by multiple offers of random strangers willing to become volunteers in taking this initiative to those who need it the most - the vulnerable girl child.”