By: Motshabi Hoaeane
On 19 August, young girls in need from Bopang Kgotso Primary School, in Vosloorus’s sense of dignity and confidence, was reaffirmed when they received sanitary pad donations from Motheo Health Promotion Centre. This comes following the nonprofit organisation (NPO), which is close to the school’s vicinity, working with the school based team (SBT) identified the need to close the gap caused by period poverty which often hindered girls academic progress, as some girls missed school attendance during their menstrual cycle, due to lack of sanitary pads.
Professional Nurse at Motheo Health Promotion Centre, Mrs Lizzy Nkoana who along with her team and the school’s SBT handed out the pads, said that the effort was intended to restore both the confidence of the young girls to ensure that they made going to their feminine cycle enjoyable instead of it being humiliating.
“We want to promote their dignity, so that they enjoy menstruation as a natural process.” She said, Adding “we want them to complete their education because when they stay at home it doesn’t mean that education stops.”
During the talk she had with the young girls she emphasised that while the intent was not to promote family planning, she stressed the importance of abstinence from sexual intercourse and prevention of pregnancy, emphasising the vigilance at this stage of the girls feminine reproductive development.
Fifty young girls from the school received sanitary pads, with each girl receiving three packs following the talk on personal hygiene, which unpacked the menstrual cycle to help the young pubescent and pre-adolescent girls to have sharper awareness of their bodies.
Mrs Nkoana also mentioned that the provision of the sanitary pads was to prevent instances where girls are exposed to infections because they use different materials and products to absorb their periods.
Bopang Kgotso Primary School Deputy Principal Memory Mofokeng said that the school was grateful for such initiatives coming from Motheo Health Promotion Centre, especially as the school was a public school that ensured that children from low-income households are not excluded from getting a basic education. “As the school we feel very happy for what Motheo has done for us”, she said.
Mofokeng mentioned that while the school did its utmost best to ensure that children from the low -income areas were well integrated into the school, she also conceded that “some of the things we cannot do on our own ”. Adding “we really appreciate what Motheo Health Promotion Centre has done for the school’s girls.”
She also mentioned in the current period, the could do with much needed sponsorship to buoy its school improvement in various areas such as its mobile classrooms so as to level the playing field for the school’s progressive upliftment.
On this very same day, the school’s younger age groups in large numbers received their vaccinations for measles, with Mofokeng mentioning that this was well in step with the school’s concern for the health and well-being of its learners, thanking both the Department of Health for coming to vaccinate the children, and, also the cooperation of parents who consented to their children getting vaccinated.
