Girls at the Bainsvlei Combined School will, through this initiative, have access to sanitary towels whenever there is a need. The project that was started by the OFM News manager, Cathy Dlodlo, and a librarian at a tertiary institution, Carmen Nel,  and is meant to make sure learners do not have to miss out on lessons due to an emergency. Nel says learners have already lost out on time in the classroom due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the initiative will prevent more lost time.  

The bank, to which learners will have access, is called a Dignity Box or #DBox.  

“Were hoping to go from strength to strength and we’d like to motivate people to donate and give. This project was arranged within a week, so we jumped in and got another company to join. Within a week there were five or six boxes filled with sanitary pads, it could easily have been a thousand,” Nel says.

“We are hoping to move this initiative to other schools as well, because the needs are not just at this school, but everywhere,” Nel adds.

OFM News/Blaine Jones