Free sanitary pads for poor KZN pupils
It is estimated that millions of South African schoolgirls aged between 13 and 19 miss one week of school every month due to not being able to afford sanitary pads. It is estimated that millions of South African schoolgirls aged between 13 and 19 miss one week of school every month due to not being able to afford sanitary pads.
Durban - The Department of Education in KZN has launched a campaign to reduce the dropout rate of girls who miss out on school due to not being able to afford sanitary pads.
The information was posted on their website and was all over social media on Tuesday. It stated that the department has initiated and launched a project for the provisioning of sanitary pads to selected quintile 1-4 schools for girls in grade 4-12. Each pupil will receive a pack each month.
According to the department, this initiative will go a long way in ensuring that no girl learner is forced to miss school due to their inability to afford sanitary pads.
Kwazi Mthethwa, spokesperson for Education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwana said: "We have to manage this programme because we want it to focus on helping girls who are in schools. We don’t want aunties and other women to use these sanitary pads because they are there to help our female learners and to ensure that they don’t have to miss classes because they cannot afford these pads.
"We could have given the girls sanitary pads that would have lasted them a year but we have decided to distribute packs that would last only six months. This is because we don’t want to have a situation where there is a temptation from the girls and officials to sell them [the pads]," he said.
It is estimated that millions of South African schoolgirls aged between 13 and 19 miss one week of school every month due to not being able to afford sanitary pads.