Girls between the ages of 12 and 18 can lose up to a fifth of their high school education.
Why?
Studies show that this is because those living in poverty in both urban and rural areas do not have access to feminine hygiene products and are too embarrassed to attend school during their menstrual period.
In June, the Dis-Chem Foundation launched the annual Million Comforts campaign to donate millions of sanitary pads to girls who don’t have access to them. Dis-Chem has partnered with shoppers and many of the major feminine hygiene brands with the objective to keep the girls in schools.
The Dis-Chem Foundation works with Caring4Girls to distribute the pads to schools in rural and underprivileged areas across the country. Caring4Girls also teaches girls about puberty and menstrual hygiene and aims to debunk social taboos around menstruation. Million Comforts and Caring4Girls seeks to answer the twin problem of sanitary towels and social taboos – with your help.
The public can donate sanitary towels until July 31 to make sure that no girl misses school, because of her gender.
Committed to changing the lives of all South Africans, the Dis-Chem Foundation has placed branded drop-off bins in over 130 Dis-Chem pharmacies countrywide.
Major feminine hygiene product suppliers: Always, Kotex, Lil-lets, Stayfree and Libresse have once again committed to matching in-store purchases of their products like for like.
Last year, 7.3 million pads were donated through the Million Comforts initiative.
This year the aim is to reach 10 million.