More than pads: NPO amplifies girls’ voices in the fight against period poverty

On the eve of International Day of the Girl Child (11 October), New Heritage Foundation is highlighting the impact period poverty has on young girls.

Period poverty refers to a lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, proper sanitation facilities, and menstrual education.

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The organisation is working to empower girls to menstruate with dignity, safeguard their reproductive health, and provide education.

This is more than just providing sanitary pads but rather listening to the girls, says founder Chantelle Goliath.

“We have found that they [girls] don’t have any idea, or any education around their sexual reproductive health… if we are the ones to change this narrative, how are we doing it without their voices?”

The foundation provides menstrual products and education about menstruation, in addition to sexual reproductive education in primary and high schools for boys and girls.

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“When the girl child goes through menstruation, her body already says that she has changed. But because she is so small, we don’t see the changes in that, we don’t acknowledge their voices and how they grow up,” she says.

To listen to Chantelle Goliath, founder of the New Heritage Foundation, in conversation with CapeTalk’s Clarence Ford, click the audio below: