Now girls can study all month
SANDTON social entrepreneur Ramona Kasavan’s beautiful smile is contagious — and she has been putting smiles on the faces of hundreds of high school girls in poorer communities since she introduced them to Happy Days sanitary pads.
She got the idea to provide affordable sanitary pads last year when she was talking to her mother about how expensive they were.
Kasavan, 28, said “a spark went off” in her mind and she began negotiating with businesses based in China. In November, she started to import high-quality but relatively cheap sanitary pads and distributed them to schoolgirls in KwaZulu-Natal. A pack of 10 costs R15.
“Up to 60% of girls in this country stay away from school for up to a week when they menstruate because they can’t afford pads,” said Kasavan, citing this as one of the main reasons they fail to matriculate. “In 2009, I was doing my thesis on the constructs of femininity in sanitary advertising, which is a taboo topic for most women. Menstruating is a natural process — women should embrace it and not pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Kasavan said many girls in poverty-stricken areas, some of whom came from child-headed homes, did not know much about menstruating or how to deal with it.
She has been selected as one of 18 participants in the Red Bull Amaphiko Academy in April. “Participants from all over the country will connect with some of the leading innovators, entrepreneurs and storytellers in South Africa and the world to share their ideas,” said Kasavan.
Sue Barnes, founder of Project Dignity, which distributes free, reusable pads to schoolgirls, commended Kasavan: “It’s marvellous what she’s doing. If it keeps girls in school, they get a chance of a better life.”