A Sasolburg-based non-profit organization is on a mission to protect the dignity of young girls and to empower them with self-awareness knowledge. The organization has even gone to the extent of designing and producing self-made, re-usable sanitary pads.
Victorious Girls Foundation is reaching out to these teen girls with hygienic packs containing items such as sanitary pads, toothpaste, face cloth and soap, among others. In empower them with self-awareness knowledge, the organization is helping them to uncover and understand who they are and be able to face and avoid many challenges they come across as they grew up.
Victorious Girls Foundation was founded in 2017 by Victorious Masoha with a passion to help and empower young girls, more especially those from disadvantaged families. The foundation started with visiting young school girls in Metsimaholo area and held talk sessions on various topics of their choice and about some on the challenges they are faced with on a daily basis.
With the ever increasing prices on various items, particularly the hygienic packages, the founder decided to come up with a relevant and sustainable solution that will help the foundation to continue helping these young school girls. Through her innovative thinking, Masoha came with the idea of designing and producing their self-made re-usable sanitary pads.
“Due to the ever increasing prices on sanitary pads we then decided to design and produce our own re-usable sanitary pads in order for the foundation to continue assisting these young and mostly disadvantaged girls.”
“We had to stop momentarily with the production of these self-made sanitary pads until approval by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). Following the approval, we continued with the production of our sanitary pads that were approved by the SABS after being tested,” said Masoha, who is the Founder and Managing Director of Victorious Girls Foundation.
The esteemed Founder said the foundation is currently busy with the production of their self-made re-usable sanitary pads and the intention is to assist about 500 girls within 5 months. “Our own self produced re-usable sanitary pads have even more advantages; they are SABS compliant and made of pure natural products. They are made with 5 layers of material, eco-friendly with high absorbency and most importantly they are washable and last up to 3 years,” she said.
The foundation will start with its distribution as soon as the school re-opens and in consultation with the Department of Education in the Fezile Dabi District. Masoha said as the foundation they are saying “No to any young girl who won’t go to school because of the unavailability of sanitary pads”. The foundation is also working hard to ensure that their product is available in most supermarkets and shops.
