Helping Girls Stay in School

In an effort to restore dignity of a girl child, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Council Speaker, Buyelwa Mafaya handed over hundreds of underwear and sanitary towels to girls from 10 different schools from across the metro.

Yesterday’s handover was a launch of a rollout programme that the Speaker’s office will do across the metro.

Speaking at the handover event held at Ikhwezilomso High School in Zwide, Council Speaker Mafaya said “Sanitary towels is not luxury but a necessity for a girl child. As the current government, we would like to join hands with the parents in nurturing our children. We embarked on this initiative to instill the culture of Ubuntu. We also acknowledge that social grants are not enough to sustain families, and the rate of unemployment has increased hence we thought of giving back focusing on young girls.”

One of the learners from Pakamisa Senior Secondary School, Onke Mangxili said “We are so grateful for what we have learnt today about how we are supposed to carry ourselves as girls. We also appreciate gesture by the Speaker and his office. This will go a long way in boosting our confidence and restoring our dignity”.

She said lack of these necessities sometimes lead to school dropouts. “We hope that the municipality can have enough financial resources to expand this initiative to all the areas of the more,” said Mangxili.

Some of the schools that benefited from this programme are Magxaki High, Lungisa Senior Secondary, Tyhilulwazi High, Loyiso High and Msengeni High.

Speaker Mafaya has called for the business sector to support the initiative by making donations. “Government alone cannot touch in every corner and sector of society. The sources we have are limited as compared to the amount of work that needs to be done. Let us work together to empower a girl child to build solid foundations for the generations to come,” said Mafaya.