October 11 is the United Nations (UN) International Day of the Girl Child, and the Imbumba Foundation has done a Caring4Girls blitz activation with various partners and provided over one million sanitary towels to over 25 000 girls from over 40 schools across all provinces in South Africa.
The partners are Big Save, The Banking Association South Africa, Exxaro, Dis-Chem Foundation, Illovo Sugar Africa, Avroy Shlain, Avon Peaking Power, Anglo Gold Ashanti, Spur Corporation, Dedisa Peaking Power, Tekkie Town, Fourways Group, to name a few).
Founded in 2010 by innovative social entrepreneur and humanitarian, Richard Mabaso, the Imbumba Foundation aims to bring about social change and economic upliftment, within rural and economically marginalised communities in Southern Africa, through investing and mentoring individuals and communities who seek to uplift and empower themselves.
The Foundation currently has three flagship programmes - Caring4Girls, Trek4Mandela, and Vision20/20 as well as provides humanitarian aid during times of crisis.
Caring4Girls is a menstrual hygiene support programme that provides feminine hygiene, sanitary towels, and puberty education support to indigent girls.
Caring4Girls is one of the largest sanitary towel distribution programmes and has supported over two million girl children across South Africa and neighbouring countries since 2012.
In connection with this year’s theme for the International Day of the Girl Child, “Girls’ vision for the future”, the United Nations argues that the gains of human rights and gender equality should not be reversed by the current crisis of climate change, conflict and poverty.
It is for this reason that the Foundation decided to use this day, which provides a great platform to make a clarion call for the intensification of its efforts, to ensure that many vulnerable girls under our care do not fall through the cracks while it continues to find more innovative ways to fight period poverty.
While honouring this day, the Foundation further highlighted some of the critical facts raised by the UN Women in one of their recent Women’s publications that focuses on (i) removal of taxation on menstrual products, (ii) increase access to menstrual products, (iii) fund movements and organisations fighting period poverty, (iv) invest in improving the data on menstrual health, (v) and make menstrual education compulsory in schools.
The work done by the Imbumba Foundation, through its Caring4Girls programme, reinforces the aforementioned but most importantly, drives the notion that for as long as girls have their periods, adequate menstrual support is a necessity.