Free sanitary pads at Mamelodi schools

The private sector in Pretoria is getting involved in the distribution of sanitary pads to one thousand school girls in Bajabulile Primary School and Gatang Secondary School. 

One of the companies is Innovative Group Solutions - a Pretoria-based agency in Ferie Glen that assists new business start-ups and small to medium businesses. 

''This initiative aims to give back to the community, as the community has been helping to grow the company, so Mamelodi was our first choice when we decided to give back to the community'', says Liza Trollip, the group's director responsible for Corporate Social Investment.

''Every single girl in both schools received sanitary wear for a year to keep them in school,'' says Trollip.

School girls in Gatang Secondary School received eight hundred sanitary packs and Grade 6-7 pupils in Bajabulile received the remaining two hundred.

''Every girl [in both schools] received 12 packs of sanitary packs that would last them a year,'' Trollip says.

This comes days after the Kwa-Zulu Natal Education Department launched a new programme aiming to distribute free sanitary pads to roughly 3 000 schools in the province. 

Kwa-Zulu Natal Education Department spokesperson, Muzi Mahlambi, says the programme aims to curb the high dropout rate as a result of menstruation and not having proper sanitation.

Trollip says Innovative Group Solutions started this initiative with a similar goal in mind: to keep girls in school irrespective of their inability to afford sanitary wear.