Athina May
Going through hormonal changes experienced during your teens can be quite daunting, and for girls, going through these changes without the necessary sanitary necessities can break your self confidence and limit your movement.
The Tender Loving Care (TLC) organisation in Table View hosts outreach programmes for impoverished communities in Wolverivier, Happy Valley and Takkergat and picked up that young girls who started their menstrual cycle without necessary supplies would often miss school.
“Many of the girls would stay out of school and use leaves or toilet paper during their menstrual cycle, because they didn’t have sanitary towels. In winter these girls can’t always make a fire to dry their intimate clothing and many of these students drop out of school even though they’re very intelligent.”
“We want to give them back their dignity and say education is important,” said TLC organiser, Colleen Pietersen who created the Crazy Daisy project to assist girls in need.
The Crazy Daisy project will provide girls in underprivileged areas such as Wolverivier with a hamper filled with sanitary supplies, underwear and deodorant on a monthly basis.
A card containing the details of each girl is also kept to ensure that the girls received personal attention.
The programme was officially launched on Wednesday February 25 in Wolverivier and the first 50 girls were assisted with a hamper.
The girls formed a queue which stretched across the dusty ground at Wolverivier, and they were spoiled with sweet treats afterwards.
As they stood ogling their goods, some of the girls remarked that they usually made use of toilet paper or a cloth, which gets washed out and reused during their menstrual cycle.
The organisation will assist another 50 girls in the week to come, but the cannot support all the girls on their programme.
“There are 550 school going children in the programme. We don’t have the finance to give everyone. We want to encourage schools to adopt a student and buy some toiletries that they would usually buy for themselves, and buy it for someone else too,” said Ms Pietersen.
The organisation would like to supply the girls with sanitary goods monthly and would like to ask the public to assist with donations of sanitary products, excluding aerosol spray deodorants, for the Crazy Daisy programme.
* To find out more about the project or donate, contact TLC co-ordinator Sue Espy at 083 658 4032 or info@tlcprojects.org.za
