Five hundred girls at Intsebenziswano Senior Secondary in Browns Farm received sanitary packs on Thursday, thanks to Gift of the Givers, to alleviate absenteeism.
The handover was held in conjunction with Nyanga SAPS and Deputy Minister of Human Settlements and Water Sanitation, Pam Tshwete.
Aphelele Gigaba, 16, the Junior Commissioner for Nyanga SAPS and a pupil at the school, called on Tshwete and authorities to make sanitary towels free for schoolgirls.
“Every girl deserves to get pads for free because it happens to each one of us, you do not choose to receive it,” she says.
“Many of us cannot afford the sanitary towels and this kills us with depression.”
Constable Marelda Abrahams said many children do not attend school because they do not have sanitary pads: “They do not come to school because they do not have sanitary pads and this is not something dirty, this is something natural.
“When you have your menstrual cycle, it means you can give life.”
Ali Salblay of Gift of the Givers says children as far as the Eastern Cape did not attend school because they didn’t have pads.
“We now want to make sure girls attends schools, you are just as important as the boys,” he said.
Tshwete handed out the sanitary gift bags, containing items such as pads, toothpaste, roll-on, soap, a towel and facecloth.
Thankful: Deputy Minister Pam Tshwete, pupils. Picture: TRACEY ADAMS/AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA)
And she urged the girls to be alert to gender-based violence.
“I don’t know what is happening with the men today, they are raping and killing our girls,” she said. “Out there men are very cruel.
VIDEO: TRACEY ADAMS/AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA)
“I don’t allow my children to do sleepovers, even if it is a friend.
“You do not know that person’s brother, if he is a rapist.”
genevieve.serra@inl.co.za