RUSTENBURG - School-going young girls from underprivileged areas of
Rustenburg will no longer have to miss school and will have their dignity
restored with the launch of the Lerato le Seriti initiative.
Lerato le Seriti, which means
and love and dignity, is an initiative by the Rustenburg local municipality in
partnership with the Department of Basic Education and Standard bank. It would
provide relief to 540 girls at 26 different schools.
Through the initiative 26
school will be provided with 1 600 sanitary towels for a period of two
years.
"We live in an era where
the ideals of self-confidence and hard work are being instilled in the minds of
young girls from an early age so that they can thrive and be equal participants
in our society and the economy in the future,” municipal manager at Rustenburg
local municipality, Nqobile Ngema said.
"However, these very
efforts are sabotaged by the reality of poverty where underprivileged families
are unable to afford sanitary towels for their daughters.
Video: Supplied.
"Ultimately, this leads to
absenteeism which is a threat to their future, loss of self-esteem from the
shame of what is happening to them and most importantly the threat to their
health due to the methods they resort to circumvent the problem."
Ngema said they wanted to grow
the initiative to address problems faced by young girls and young
boys. "The vision that I ultimately have for this programme is (for
it) to grow into something bigger.
"We want to start with the
basics, which is to allow young girls to attend school even when they are going
through that difficult time that we all face as women during the month.
"It is very unfortunate
that in a society where education has became the backbone for tomorrow's
success we still have young women who remain at home for a couple of days
because of a natural cycle of life."
Video: Supplied.
Ngema said the municipality was
committed to providing all communities with a high-quality life and investing
in the future of young women by ensuring their education was not disrupted was
important.
"We are grateful to be
able to partner with the Department of Basic Education and like-minded private
sector corporate such as Standard Bank where we can make a bigger impact in our
communities.
"We trust that by
alleviating the burden of accessing sanitary towels on our girls, we have a
better shot of carving future female leaders of our country," she
said.
She told young girls that their
background should not determined their destiny. "Do not succumb to
peer pressure. Be proud of where you come from. Don't pay attention to what you
don't have but what you can have in the future."
According to various
reports, South African girls can miss up to 50 days of school per year,
due to lack of access to sanitary wear.