Mangaliso Kabulika
THE Body of Christ Youths in Purpose Trust (BoCYP) has launched its ‘Donate a Pad Campaign’ to donate sanitary pads to low-income communities such as Dzivaresekwa and Kuwadzana.
The aim is to help young girls manage their periods and continue their education without disruption.
BoCYP founder, Misheck Mazenela, said that many girls were missing school due to the challenge of accessing menstrual hygiene products. The initiative has partnered with local churches to increase the number of girls they donate to, and Mazenela hopes to achieve a self-sustainable community through all of BoCYP’s programmes in the next 10 years.
“We launched the ‘Donate a Pad Campaign’ last year by donating sanitary pads to 17 girls in Dzivaresekwa, with each receiving 12 packs assuming they would take them throughout the year.
“This meant they would not worry about sanitary pads for a year. This was necessitated by the realisation that most families in the community cannot afford to buy pads for their daughters. Sometimes a family has more than one daughter, which means all of them have to use unsafe methods like a piece of cloth, paper or tissue paper.
“During the mensuration period they are most likely to miss school, which affects their learning,” said Mazenela.
Mazenela said they had planned a churches charity dinner to engage and encourage them to mobilise pads within their denominations for distribution to underprivileged girls.
Mazanela said they intended to increase the number of beneficiaries from 17 last year to more than 50 this year.