A worthy cause

WHILE to some women buying sanitary products is as easy as getting milk or bread from the shop, it’s not so simple for millions of young girls who live below the poverty line in South Africa.

Many of them have to resort to using old clothes, rags, newspapers, leaves, bark and grass because they cannot afford sanitary towels.

These schoolgirls miss up to five days of school a month, which amounts to 60 missed school days a year, as they cannot afford pads or tampons and therefore stay at home.

When they use unhygienic alternatives to sanitary pads, not only is this humiliating, but it puts them at risk of acquiring vaginal infections.

Which is where the initiative called One Million Comforts comes into the picture.

The campaign is a collaboration between Independent Media, Dis-Chem pharmacies and the Dis-Chem Foundation to collect 1 million sanitary towels for girls in desperate need of these products.

All that one does is buy a packet and drop it into a marked bin at Dis-Chem outlets. Our target was 1 million sanitary towels by October 16 – this target was exceeded by 43 000 by Tuesday.

A final audited number will be announced when the campaign ends next Friday. Thousands of girls will benefit from your generosity. Thank you.