Pink Tea Cups campaign help to empower girls
The Pink Tea Cup event will take place on 9 August and will be a morning of empowering young women.
POLOKWANE – According to research, girls who cannot afford sanitary products miss approximately five days of school a month during their monthly cycles, and this amounts to 60 missed school days a year.
This fact is what motivated Mrs Polokwane 2017, Irene Schempers, to start the Pink Tea Cup campaign.
“I was shocked to hear how many girls have to miss out on school and life each month because they cannot afford sanitary products. This often leads to them dropping out of school altogether. Education is crucial to eradicating poverty and unemployment in South Africa and we cannot achieve these goals if we do not help these girls,” Irene said.
The Pink Tea Cup initiative aims to raise funds to supply these girls with silicon menstrual cups which are durable and is said to last up to 10 years with proper care and cleaning.
“We will not only hand out these menstrual cups, we will also hand out sanitary towels as some girls might be unable to use the menstrual cup. The menstrual cups take some getting used to as the experience of using them is different from using tampons.
However, we will embark on an educational campaign along with the Pink Tea Cup initiative to inform and educate the girls on how best to use it and clean it.
Through this initiative we hope to educate the girls about their bodies and the changes they are undergoing so they can learn to accept their bodies instead of hating them,” Irene explained.
Irene and some of her friends embarked on another initiative, Bloom, where they will take young girls under their wings, giving them gift packs, inspiring and motivating them.
Because they will only be able to help a select few girls, they will identify girls who require assistance who will in turn have to write a motivational letter on why they should be chosen. Along with that, they will also identify several girls they will assist to have a magical matric farewell.
“We aim to help 500 girls and steadily grow the number each year. We are in need of sponsors and volunteers in order to grow the project, so anyone who wishes to help us can contact us at 084 701 4250,” Irene said.
