Travel With a Purpose

Ivy Rachele, School Nurse Grace Ismail with Sophie Neville and pupils 

How can I help women in Africa?

What could I do to make a difference?

We have been busy raising funds to buy packs of washable sanitary towels so that schoolgirls in a corner of rural South Africa no longer feel obliged to miss lessons while menstruating. Some of them were missing a week of school every month.

Verita Shikwambana of Dignity Dreams

School nurse Grace Ismail invited Verita Shikwambana of Dignity Dreams to Meetsetshehla Secondary School in the Limpopo Province to give a talk to pupils on menstrual health. Verita explained how to take care of the pads, which are designed to be washed in cold water. These were then distributed to 210 schoolgirls. None of them had been expecting such an amazing gift. Nurse Grace will monitor progress and report back on how things go.

The eco-friendly washable sanitary pads are handmade in Pretoria and last 4 or 5 years. They cost R160 or about £9 for a pack of six, which is exceptionally good value. The packs we distributed were purchased by The Waterberg Trust and Environmental Impact Management Services who kindly brought boxes of the packs up from Pretoria.

Representatives of Dignity Dreams, Environmental Impact Services, The Waterberg Trust and Meetsetshehla School 

We are hoping that the pads will give the girls confidence, enable them to remain in lessons and help them to achieve their full potential in life.

We would love to buy another 200 packs to equip the pupils of other schools in the area that are monitored by Nurse Grace. If you would like to make a donation to this very worthwhile project, you can find The Waterberg Trust website page here.