Your donation will be of great comfort to her

BY THE start of the week more than 4 million packs of sanitary towels had been donated towards this year’s Million Comforts campaign.

The 2017 edition of the campaign, run by the Dis-Chem Foundation in partnership with The Mercury and its sister newspapers The Star, Cape Times and Pretoria News, ends on Sunday and we’re appealing to readers to go out and make a difference.

All you have to do is visit your local Dis-Chem store and either buy one of the specially priced packs of inhouse sanitary towels for under R10 and drop it off in one of the specially branded purple coloured bins in-store. If you buy a pack of sanitary towels from Always, Lil-lets and Stayfree, these manufacturers will match your donation, one for one.

Studies show that teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 18 living in poverty in urban and rural areas can lose up to a fifth of their high school education because they do not have access to feminine hygiene products – and are too embarrassed to attend school during their menstrual periods.

#Million Comforts and Caring4Girls seeks to answer the problem of sanitary towels and social taboos – with your help.

“This initiative is not just critical to ensuring young girls stay in school, but to break the chains that would otherwise condemn them to a life of poverty and hopelessness,” says Dis-Chem Foundation chairperson Lynette Saltzman. “By being able to complete school with the best possible matric qualification, they can go out and make use of every opportunity that comes their way and create that better life they so deserve.”

Million Comforts works hand in with Imbumba Vision, which not only distributes a year’s worth of sanitary towels to the recipients, but also provides training.

Be part of the fight against stigma and help us help the future mothers of the nation by dropping off your donation in stores until Sunday. – Mercury Correspondent