Imbumba Foundation helps to restore the dignity of you girls
The day ended on a high note with the learners interacting with Clement Maosa, known as Kwaito on Skeem Sam.
Imbumba Foundation visited Thaba-Jabula Secondary School to celebrate International Day of the Girl Child and to activate their Caring4Girls initiative on October 11.
The foundation was founded in 2010 by innovative social entrepreneur and humanitarian, Richard Mabaso, with an aim to bring about social change and economic upliftment within rural and economically disadvantaged communities in South Africa.
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According to Mabaso, the Caring4Girls programme is aimed at providing support on menstrual hygiene for female learners and it is the largest sanitary towel distribution programme with over two million girl children across the country and neighbouring country since 2012.
“Today we are here as part of our national campaign to reach to 2 000 girls from 35 local schools.
“The idea really was to deliver one million sanitary towels as a celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child. As a nation we need to stop everything we are doing and think about the girl child.
“Today we teamed up with EXARRO and Soweto Cabal Athletics. We are here to tell the girl child that they are special and to also remind our society that we need to do everything as humanly possible to ensure that girls enjoy and love coming to school because they have support,” Mabasa said.
He added that the foundation is close to his heart because in December 2010 he overheard a conversation between his mother and his niece who had started her period that day but she didn’t know what was happening.
She told his mother who then reprimanded her not to talk about menstrual issues in front of a male.
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“That prompted me to want to do something for my niece not knowing that the programme will soon be a goal. I then went around asking for donations and some people were laughing at me that why would a man do this.
“One day I woke up with an idea to climb Kilimanjaro with a friend and we managed to raise enough funds for sanitary towels that were donated to two schools in Nelspruit and Qhunu. To date, we have taken more than 360 people to climb the mountain in support of the cause.
“Beyond the dignity that we give the girl child is that the people who are climbing this mountain are men and women from any religion and background.
“There is no better way to raise awareness than to stand on a mountain top and advocate for a girl child.”
Imbumda Foundation donated more than 2500 sanitary towels to the school and cosmetics.
The learners also received menstrual education from the foundation as well as a motivational talk from EXXARO group manager for social impact, Tebogo Leepile.
The day ended on a high note with the learners interacting with Clement Maosa, known as Kwaito on Skeem Sam.
