Girls to be given pads at schools

PUPILS from underprivileged areas of Rustenburg will no longer have to miss school and will have their dignity restored with the launch of the Lerato le Seriti initiative.

Lerato le Seriti, which means love and dignity, is an initiative by the Rustenburg local municipality in partnership with the Department of Basic Education and Standard Bank. Through the initiative, 26 school will be provided with 1600 sanitary pads for a period of two years.

“We live in an era where the ideals of self-confidence and hard work are being instilled in the minds of young girls from an early age so that they can thrive and be equal participants in our society and the economy in the future,” municipal manager at Rustenburg local municipality, Nqobile Ngema, said.

“However, these efforts are sabotaged by the reality of poverty where underprivileged families are unable to afford sanitary towels for their daughters.

“This leads to absenteeism, which is a threat to their future, loss of self-esteem from the shame of what is happening to them and, most importantly, the threat to their health due to the methods they resort to to circumvent the problem.

“The vision I ultimately have for this programme is (for it) to grow into something bigger. “We want to start with the basics, which is to allow young girls to attend school even when they are (having their periods).”

“We are grateful to be able to partner with the Department of Basic Education and private sector corporates such as Standard Bank so we can make a bigger impact in our communities.”

According to various reports, South African girls can miss up to 50 days of school a year due to the lack of access to sanitary products.