Download PDFAyanda Ndlovu (23), is the founder of ‘A Building Spirit Pad Drive’, a campaign that distributes donated sanitary pads to high school learners around Gauteng. According to Ndlovu the purpose of this pad drive is to help girls regain their confidence. “In many cases female learners are afraid to ask for pads from other people and as a result they end up not going to school and even using things like socks and cloths that could possibly lead to infections and possible permanent damage.”
Ndlovu and his team, together with community partners such as Keamogetswe M Foundation get donations from the community via walk-in drop offs, collections and also vouchers and cash for the pads. They also do sport sdays in the community where they invite netball and soccer sport teams to compete against each other. The most recent sports day was on 26 June 2021 in Polokwane, and they got a total of 35 dignity pad packs from the three invited teams (Swallows FC, Villa Boys and the Bankers FC).
‘A Building Spirit Pad Drive’s plan is to donate the pads to two schools in KwaThema (on the Eastrand of Gauteng) called Lefa-Ifa Secondary School and Nkumbulo Secondary School.
Previously they had donated in Phulong Secondary and Kenneth Masikela Secondary Schools. Jabulani Fakude, Principal of Kenneth Masikela Secondary said; “A large percentage of our learners are from impoverished families and they cannot afford to buy sanitary towels all the time. We are grateful for the youth that is giving back to the community by donating sanitary towels to protect the dignity of our female learners.”
Ndlovu, said that this was their first project in KwaThema and that he was very happy to be welcomed by the community. The foundation will be donating to more schools when they re-open for the third term and are also accepting donations.
This article was submitted on 10 July 2021. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
