Stop the Cycle of Poverty "Period"

In the words of Charles Dickens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

This man Dickens was a wise one. This introductory line basically sums up what has being going on in the last year of my life since 14 August 2014 that it has been difficult to write about any one subject in particular.  Every time I tried to start a blog, some new life event was taking centre stage.  But like you all know by now - my life is never without drama, whether good or bad.

Last year was not a good year in terms of my health, although not too serious, it did however take its toll on me.  To make matters worse, I had to deal with a shrewd landlord, who failed to do proper maintenance on the place I was renting from him, resulting in the ceiling collapsing on my bed and forcing me to move at a minute's notice. Fortunately, I was not home at the time, doing what I enjoy on a Sunday afternoon, when I am not out breaking speed records.  The upside of the move is that I get to live in my dream area, Zeekoevlei - I don't quite have the house on the lake yet - but that will happen soon.

On this note of living in my dream area, I can confidently say that I am getting to live my dream of what I wish for myself too.

I made a bucket list of what I wanted to do or achieve before I turned 50 (which was just last month). Here are a couple of the things on my list:

to live in a peaceful home; meet someone who makes me laugh and understands me; live in my dream area; learn to ride a motorbike; serve my purpose by making a difference in women's lives.  The list goes on, but these are a few of the things that I have managed to achieve or in the process of achieving.

It was always my wish to have a 50th birthday party with a purpose. As my conscience bothers me when I say I am going to do something, and I don't, I needed to ensure that an idea (one of many) regarding access to sanitary towels for young girls who miss school because they cannot afford it, needed to be highlighted, so decided that my 50th birthday would be the best platform to do so by collecting enough sanitary towels to ensure 50 young ladies will not miss school for a year.  To ensure this, I would need to collect 9000 sanitary towels and before finishing this little blog, the current total stands at 4932.  This has not been possible without the help of all the friends, family and strangers who have heeded the call. Your efforts are much appreciated.

Needless to say that when I said I wanted to have a "Period" Party for my birthday, I was laughed at and ridiculed for coming up with such an idea.  Little did I know that after my birthday I would get the overwhelming response I am getting from near and far, from people I have never met to support this initiative. 

Collecting sanitary towels is not my real purpose for highlighting the need, but to highlight the fact that there is big business in sanitary towels of which companies are making a damn good penny off the backs of women.  Exploitation at its best, I would say.

If sanitary towels were made simpler (for example without all the prettiness, colourful pictures of flowers, birds, etc etc) it would cost less to manufacture.  Who the heck cares how pretty it looks, when after all it is getting stuck in a panty collecting blood.  All we need is a durable, comfortable pad to serve its purpose.

I recognise and acknowledge that there are companies who are getting creative and coming up with substitutes for disposable sanitary towels.  However, this is all good and well if we have the necessary infrastructures in place to ensure that this can work, for example, access to clean running water for starters.

 

But let me not rant and rave like I am well known for, however, let me not run my ranting down, as most times it does reap positive results.  Highlighting issues that most of us are unaware of or just seem to find acceptable.

 

I hope that through this project which I am in the process of registering as a Non Profit Organisation, I will be able to highlight the need for affordable, quality sanitary towels for all women.  Perhaps our government through our education department can make it a compulsory standard issue at the beginning of each school year to ensure that each young female girl at puberty age can have free access to sanitary towels.  If we want to ensure that we have educated, self-sufficient, confident women, we need to start by ensuring that nothing stops them from getting the education they so rightfully entitled to.

UPDATE

An unexpected target of 221 young women benefitted from the contributions made through the gifts received at my 50th and the public, for which I am eternally grateful.  This project has now also been registered and launched and is well on its way to making a difference in the lives of our young women in Matric.

 

The cycle of poverty stops with our women "PERIOD"