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With Menstrual Hygiene Day being celebrated on May 28, Girls on the Go, Clicks’ Helping Hand Trust programme, on Tuesday partnered with the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers and feminine products maker Always to donate 1 200 packs of sanitary pads to girls at Phomolong Secondary School in Tembisa.
This forms part of a broader donation of 633 000 sanitary pads and sanitary products valued at R1.5 million that will be handed over to schools and communities nationwide over the next month.
A study published in the Reproductive Health journal noted that girls who did not have enough sanitary products for every period were more likely to miss school. The researchers also found that one in seven pupils reported not having enough sanitary products for every period in the last three months.
READ: Working together to fight menstrual poverty among vulnerable girls
This is the second year Clicks has donated sanitary pads to the school.
Principal Hector Mushwana explained that while the department of education did donate sanitary products to the school, the need had been so great that there was never enough to go around.
Mushwana shared that after one of the pupils told him that she was experiencing “a problem” it made him realise why the need for sanitary packs was so important. The “problem” was that the girl’s period had started while she was at school.
He said that incident was eye-opening and that all the teachers needed to have a pack or two in class in case of such emergencies.
He said:
Grade 10 pupil Thato Mabindisa (16), said she was happy to receive the sanitary towels and the information about menstruation.
“Today, we were taught about our periods, how to take care of ourselves as girls, how to be hygienic all the time, especially during our periods and that we have to change our pads at least after two hours so that they don’t get full.”
Thato said the sanitary pads made her feel more confident and she was no longer ashamed because she loved her body.
Menstrual health activist and Candice “Minister of Menstruation” Chirwa said South Africa needed to have more conversations and spaces to talk openly to high school pupils about periods.
READ: Smashing the period taboo
Chirwa added that having organisations donate sanitary towels to ensure that girls attend school and go about their daily activities was fundamental as this was a human rights issue:
She said it was undeniable that there was a sanitation crisis in the country and hoped that “one day we are not just going to give pads only but upgrade the schools’ toilets”.
Chirwa said more should be done to educate the boys too about periods to end the stigma and challenge taboos related to mensuration.
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