Publications
Partners
Sthembiso Ndashe has melted hearts – and hopefully inspired other fathers – with his now-viral post of the period hamper he put together for his 10-year-old daughter.
The Joburg entrepreneur and chef presented his daughter, Unathi, with a red box tied with a matching ribbon.
Inside were sweets, chocolates, sanitary pads, a teddy bear and a pack of painkillers, all to prepare the tween for her first period.
Sthembiso (40) said he'd only been expecting to only have to deal with this when she reached her teens, but he got a reality check when she told him about a classmate who'd had her period recently.
“We’ve had period conversations but clearly it’s getting real now,” he wrote in his post.
Sthembiso spoke to the women in his life who helped with suggestions for what he should put in his daughter's period hamper.
“I bought pads – the light, heavy and night ones,” he says.
“Someone suggested painkillers and a teddy bear, and the other advice I got was to always fill the box up with sweet stuff.
“It was just a way of saying, I don’t know when it’s going to happen but just know that I’ve got your back when it does,” Sthembiso says.
READ MORE| He's spent half of his young life fighting cancer – now he's a leukaemia warrior
He presented the box to Unathi, with a card that read, “Dear Unathi, Look, I’m scared but I know that you are not, and you are a wonderful and strong young lady. I want you to know that your body is amazing and soon there will be changes.”
As she continued reading, she began crying tears of joy, Sthembiso says.
She opened the box and hugged her dad before phoning her mom to show her the box too.
Una is co-parented by her dad and mom, and has been living with her father for about two years now.
Sthembiso, who says that he's been a hands-on dad since Una was born, is adamant that talking about periods is essential.
“Una and I have always had these conversations,” he says.
They've watched YouTube videos about menstruation together, he says, and he's bought her the book Tidi Talks: Periods by Farah Fortune, paediatrician Dr Nokukhanya Khanyile and Thandazile Ndlovu. It is a guide to periods for young girls and their parents.
“We bought 10 copies and I told her that she should share them with her friends at school."
Sthembiso, who runs a campaign called I Love Fatherhood, which promotes responsible parenting, says he "wants to be the kind of father who she calls on her worst day, and on her best day".
“Una is growing up and she’s becoming a woman,” he says.
“I want her to know that I’ve got her back. If it means that I have to buy a truck of chocolates every month so that she’ll be good, I’ll do that.”
