20 Nov 2018

 Choppies Mahalapye has donated a year supply of sanitary pads to the value of P52 560 to 200 boarding female students of Ramokgonami Junior Secondary School.

Handing over the donations in Ramokgonami, Choppies Mahalapye manager Mr Thapelo Tlhase said Choppies takes corporate social service seriously.

He said they take pride in getting involved in initiatives of this nature as they believed that young people across the country especially those who came from disadvantaged and vulnerable backgrounds deserved a dignified life.

Mr Tlhase said the growth of Choppies would not have been possible without the continued support of the valued customers and the employees.

He thanked Ramokgonami junior secondary for giving his store the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people.

Receiving the donations, the headmaster of Ramokgonami Junior Secondary School Ms Tshegofatso Batisani said the Ministry of Basic Education was encouraging business people and the nation at large to be in partnership with schools through Adopt- A -School and mentorship programmes.

She said the donations came at the right time when schools were expected to assist a girl child with sanitary pads so that they may not miss their teaching and learning during menstruation.

She said Ramokgonami junior secondary was a boarding school and had girls that were unable to purchase sanitary pads due to lack of money and the boy child coming from the same under privileged home like the girl child, him too find himself with challenges of lack of basic needs like toiletry and clothing.

She however appealed to different stakeholders to see how they could assist the students at her school so that they could have their dignity restored and ultimately help them achieve better results in school as more of their concentration would now be focused in their studies instead of their status.

Representative of the guidance and counselling committee at the school Ms Bonolo Morategi-Lesolame said they sourced the sanitary pads after the students shared with them that they used toilet paper, clothes while others cut mattresses to use in place of sanitary pads when they were desperate.

She said this was not only a health hazard to the girls but also made them to lose their confidence, their self-esteem and their dignity.

Ms Morategi-Lesolame said through the one year sponsor from Choppies the girls at her school would be able to embrace their femininity with pride. ENDS