Women help women in Sunninghill

Jabula Dames is headed up by Boniswa Holland, Juliette Jansen and Emma Linton and raises funds to distribute sanitary wear for women and teenage girls who live in rescue shelters and orphanages.

Holland said the idea for the drive was sparked when she participated in the Santa Shoebox initiative and a girl from an orphanage asked her to buy her sanitary wear and toiletries.

“It is a basic need that people do not think about,” said Holland. Jabula Dames officially started in September last year as Holland Jansen and Linton could not sit on the sidelines without extending help to women in need.

They ended 2012 with a Christmas mission and distributed sanitary wear to a number of rescue shelters and orphanages.
The fundraiser at Santi’s Restaurant is the first event that Jabula Dames have held and they were encouraged by the community support shown with the raising of R5 000.

The Graeme Watkins Project and upcoming band I Am Joey rocked out to fans and supporters’ enjoyment and five percent of the bar takings for the evening went to Jabula Dames.

Linton said the name was inspired by their aim to make women happy and to maintain African inspiration.
“We don’t just want to collect the items and drop them off behind the scenes, we really want to interact with the women and to know about their stories. We want to be hands on,” said Linton.

Holland pointed to future plans where they aim to work with the municipality to help women in townships to dispose of their sanitary wear. “Many of the women in townships do not even use sanitary wear because they have difficulty disposing of it but that is not right, so we hope to make this basic need easier for women,” said Holland.

With future plans on the cards and new funds available, Jabula Dames hopes to touch many hearts and help many women.