Cape Town - A community project aimed at restoring the dignity of young girls in Kensington is under way, as volunteers are working hard to collect 5 000 pairs of underwear.
The Panty Drive, spearheaded by ward councillor Cheslyn Steenberg, follows calls for help from schools and organisations to assist teenagers to stay in school.
“The Panty Drive comes from a project known as the Butterfly Programme that we started several months ago amid calls for help from the community.
“Among some of the issues identified were teen pregnancies and absenteeism from school.
“We teamed up with the Community Policing Forum and local actress Jill Levenberg and the Cape Cultural Collective who did a fantastic outreach programme with the girls.”
Speaking to the Cape Argus, Steenberg said he was shocked when he heard about the extreme steps young girls were forced to take as they couldn’t afford basic hygiene items.
“I was delivering socks to Sunderland Primary School for the girls when I was asked if I could help with panties. Here I heard bone-chilling and absolutely horrific stories about what our young girls are going through.
“I was informed that our girls are suffering and don’t even have panties.
“When they menstruate some of them are forced to take old socks and push them inside themselves or even use face masks to stop the blood from leaking out.
“I was so shocked at how our girls are being reduced to this.”
In the past week, Steenberg has been marketing the drive and explained that they wanted to help over 100 girls, aged from 14 to 21. He said the crippling psychological side effects faced by the girls had a detrimental impact on their education.
“This is not just about sanitary towels or tampons because even if they have a pad they have nothing to place it on.
“Many of the girls are also using old t-shirts and, even more shockingly, they have even admitted to not having soap to wash with, so for the drive we are looking at sanitary packs which include not only underwear and sanitary equipment but toiletries to help them keep clean and restore their dignity.”
To date they have collected 100 panties and called on Capetonians to help restore some hope.