Dis-Chem donates sanitary pads

On 8 November Dis-Chem at Grove Mall donated sanitary pads to Mountview Secondary School schoolgirls in the Okahandja Park informal settlement in Windhoek.
JUSTISIA SHIPENA
Justicia Shipena

Each girl received two packs of sanitary pads as part of Dis-Chem’s Million Comforts campaign.

CJ Brand Secondary School, Highline Secondary School and Dawid Bezuidenhoudt Secondary School also received donations as part of the campaign.

Dispensary manager at Dis-Chem, Anel Zah, said the initiative started in 2012 in South Africa when the Ibumba Foundation realised there was a need to prevent young girls from being absent from school due to their menstruation cycles.

The Caring4girls programme was created by Ibumba to establish a distribution project that sees sanitary pads being donated and delivered to schoolgirls, keeping them in school during their monthly cycles.

Zah said the Caring4girls programme focuses on several areas, which include education and puberty training, personal hygiene management, as well as the handling, usage and disposal of sanitary towels.

She said research shows that some girls miss up to 50 days of school annually due to their lack of access to adequate sanitary protection.

“It is because of these statistics that the Caring4girls programme was established. Dis-Chem South Africa started the Million Comforts campaign to help collect more pads to donate to girls,” she said.

Million Comforts allows customers to buy and donate the sanitary pads at Dis-Chem pharmacies, which then network with Caring4girls to distribute the pads to schools.

Regina Naruses, the assistant manager at the Grove Mall Dis-Chem store, said they decided to join the Million Comforts project to create a local platform to support Namibian girls in the same way.

She said it is an initiative to give back to the community, without any marketing motives behind it.

“This project is actually the result of our customers’ compassion and willingness to buy and donate the pads.”

Paul Lewin, deputy director of programmes and quality assurance, said the first task of any school is education, and not only education for its own sake, but quality inclusive education, which will prepare young Namibians for a knowledge-based economy, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Vision 2030 and the Harambee Prosperity Plan.

Lewin added that when young girls do not have access to sanitary products, they are forced to make use of unsanitary and ineffective materials, which can introduce infections and cause discomfort.

“Ensuring learners’ health and wellbeing is an essential part of favourable outcomes in education in the short run, and for national development in the long run,” he said.

Mountview Secondary School principal, Brian Ndabeni, expressed his appreciation for the donation.