Five HeronBridge College learners donated reusable sanitary pads worth R45 000 to a non-profit organisation in Diepsloot on 14 May.
Liam Waller, Dean Hyslop, Dylan Simpson, Eliákim Gengadoo and Tyla van der Klis started the student-led project last year to assist with donating pads to girls in Diepsloot. Since then, they have been raising funds and working alongside Palesa Pads South Africa.
They raised over R45 000 to buy and hand over 175 reusable pads to Safe-Hub in Diepsloot, where youngsters in Diepsloot get involved in sports such as football and other life skill activities.
Deputy head of the school, Simon Crane said the organising and planning for the donation to Safe-Hub had been in the works since 2019 after discussions with a parent. He said that the learners exceeded all expectations. The school then incorporated the work put into the student-led project to coincide with required community service hours.
“The project has taken longer than we thought, but we needed to find a way to make it sustainable. Now that we have connected it to the life orientation department, the work is not done yet. Learners in Grade 11 will need their 80 hours of community service,” he said.
“The five learners have stayed with this project the whole time and were there from the beginning. It is so much better to have something that repeats every year and can benefit 175 girls again next year.”
Programme director at Safe-Hub Diepsloot, Siphokazi Ndlangalavu said girls do want to play football, but challenges always arise when they are on their period. She said they had been introduced to Palesa Pads in 2019 when an initiative with Safe-Hub involved monetary and pad donations.
“We wanted to have something that will keep the girls coming here, and that we can give them sanitary towels and that way they can feel comfortable coming here and playing football,” she said.
“We were closed in 2020 because of Covid. Once we opened up again, we were told of HeronBridge wanting to donate to us as they were also working with Palesa Pads.”
Safe-Hub handed the pads over to girls who attended an afternoon life skills session. The female staff at Safe-Hub sat the girls down to explain how to use the reusable pads as according to Ndlangalavu, it was something new for the girls.
One of the girls, Nonhlanhla Magagula, said she was grateful for the donation, and that more awareness needs to be raised around menstrual health for young girls. “Some people find it hard to talk about their period to their parents, and cannot afford pads as well. The ones we got today are nice because we get to wash and recycle them.”
