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More than 200 South African schools have installed sanitary pad dispensing machines through the MENstruation Foundation initiative aimed at tackling period poverty.
At Hoërskool Die Burger in Randburg on Friday morning, pupils gathered around a sanitary pad dispensing machine installed at the school, part of a growing initiative aimed at tackling period poverty and keeping girls in school.
The initiative, led by the MENstruation Foundation ahead of World Menstrual Health Day on May 28, uses sanitary pad dispensers to provide free menstrual products to pupils in disadvantaged communities.
The foundation says one in three South African schoolgirls cannot afford sanitary pads, contributing to absenteeism, poor academic performance and school dropouts.
Co-founder Siv Ngesi described the crisis as one that South Africa has ignored for far too long.
“Four million young schoolgirls cannot afford sanitary pads,” said Ngesi. “Without education, she has no future. Not being able to afford sanitary pads is stealing her future.”
According to the foundation, the programme operates in more than 200 schools nationwide and distributes more than one million sanitary pads every month through its dispensing system. Ngesi said the broader initiative distributes closer to 1.6-million pads monthly.
The dispensers work through a token system. Pupils receive tokens from designated staff members, insert them into the machine and receive packets containing between eight and 10 sanitary pads.
The machines are sponsored by different corporates. Ngesi said the goal was to create sustainable and dignified access to menstrual products for girls who would otherwise struggle silently.
“People don’t realise, if a young girl cannot afford sanitary pads, it increases the probability of them getting raped as well,” he said.
He also revealed that some girls in vulnerable communities resort to transactional sex to afford sanitary products.
“Some girls in townships or rural areas are actually having sex with men in exchange for money to buy pads, which makes them prone to STDs or pregnancy,” Ngesi told TimesLIVE.
Ngesi said this crisis should not be viewed as a women’s issue alone and men needed to get involved in the fight against period poverty.
At the school, teachers say the machine has already started changing pupils’ lives.
Teacher representative and acting head of Afrikaans Christina Mashobane said many pupils come from impoverished communities where access to sanitary products is difficult.
“This is actually a pandemic. The whole country is struggling with this,” Mashobane said.
She said pupils previously felt embarrassed asking teachers for sanitary products, often resulting in absenteeism and anxiety.
The dispenser was installed about two months ago after the school approached community organisations for assistance.
“Now they can just go to a machine. We don’t have as many children missing school,” she told TimesLIVE
For the deputy president of the representative council of pupils, Jadaida Bantam, the programme has also shifted conversations among boys at the school.
“Prior to this programme, it was very stereotypical to me. I had no understanding of it,” Bantam said.
He said awareness campaigns around the dispenser had made male pupils more sensitive and informed.
“As boys, we have been more aware and sensitive towards the issue. There have been more positive talks about menstruation after the project.”
Bantam believes the initiative helps girls focus on school instead of worrying about embarrassment during their menstrual cycle.
“It gives girls the opportunity to have access to pads, which allows them to focus in class,” he said.
Babalwa Latsha, a Springbok women’s rugby player and a director of the MENstruation Foundation, said menstrual health conversations should become normalised.
“A period, in my opinion, is as normal as a nosebleed. The shame attached to it should be done away with,” she said.
Latsha said she personally uses the foundation’s sanitary products and stressed that the initiative was not about selling pads but about restoring dignity.
“It’s to empower young girls, to say that they are valuable and they can experience their menstrual cycles in a dignified way,” she said.
TimesLIVE