Schoolboys advocate for free sanitary pads
Challenging stigmas
Rivaldo Kavanga
The Boys’ Club at Khomastura High School last week launched the We Care project, which aims to make sanitary pads available at school. The event was attended by the Khomastura learners, the school management, representatives of the Ella du Plessis Boys’ Club, Sidney Boois, chief executive officer of the School of Destiny Associates (SODA), and other invited guests.
The project aims to foster values such as accountability and self-worth. We Care is a demonstration of social solidarity, an intervention which attempts to make boys understand the circumstances of the girls sitting next to them in class.
“The plight of the Namibian girl child, period poverty must be addressed, and again today the constitutional right to education and dignity of a daughter in our society has been responded to,” Boois said.
Moses Niikondo, the chairman of the Boys’ Club at Ella du Plessis Secondary School, said society treats menstrual periods like a taboo. “The first time I was assigned to donate pads I was unsure of how I would manage to buy it, not because of any financial difficulty but because of how the people in the shop would look at me,” said Niikondo.
He further said that the cashier in the shop asked him what he was doing with pads, as it was the only thing he had in his basket.
“Responsibility is a choice and our choice today is to voice our support of the motion tabled by the deputy minister of ICT, Emma Theofilius, who is seeking the amendment of tax laws that would allow tax exemptions on all menstrual and feminine hygiene products. We will not stop advocating till we see the ‘not for sale’ label on sanitary pads,” said Niikondo.
“On behalf of all the boys at Khomastura, as chairperson of the Boys’ Club, we pledge our full commitment to the We Care project. The girls can count on us to ensure that the lack of sanitary pads at this school will be a problem of the past,” said Waldo Esau, the chairman of the Boys’ Club.
The club hopes that its social advocacy programme would lead to structural advocacy which would result in policy change to advance the education of girls.
The Boys’ Club at Khomastura High School last week launched the We Care project, which aims to make sanitary pads available at school. The event was attended by the Khomastura learners, the school management, representatives of the Ella du Plessis Boys’ Club, Sidney Boois, chief executive officer of the School of Destiny Associates (SODA), and other invited guests.
The project aims to foster values such as accountability and self-worth. We Care is a demonstration of social solidarity, an intervention which attempts to make boys understand the circumstances of the girls sitting next to them in class.
“The plight of the Namibian girl child, period poverty must be addressed, and again today the constitutional right to education and dignity of a daughter in our society has been responded to,” Boois said.
Moses Niikondo, the chairman of the Boys’ Club at Ella du Plessis Secondary School, said society treats menstrual periods like a taboo. “The first time I was assigned to donate pads I was unsure of how I would manage to buy it, not because of any financial difficulty but because of how the people in the shop would look at me,” said Niikondo.
He further said that the cashier in the shop asked him what he was doing with pads, as it was the only thing he had in his basket.
“Responsibility is a choice and our choice today is to voice our support of the motion tabled by the deputy minister of ICT, Emma Theofilius, who is seeking the amendment of tax laws that would allow tax exemptions on all menstrual and feminine hygiene products. We will not stop advocating till we see the ‘not for sale’ label on sanitary pads,” said Niikondo.
“On behalf of all the boys at Khomastura, as chairperson of the Boys’ Club, we pledge our full commitment to the We Care project. The girls can count on us to ensure that the lack of sanitary pads at this school will be a problem of the past,” said Waldo Esau, the chairman of the Boys’ Club.
The club hopes that its social advocacy programme would lead to structural advocacy which would result in policy change to advance the education of girls.
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