AfriPulse
November 15, 2025 November 15, 2025
In the rural village of Mmakaunyane, the greatest barrier to a girl’s education isn’t always tuition—it’s her monthly period. A lack of access to sanitary pads forces thousands of girls to miss up to a week of school every month, creating an educational gap that can derail their future.
The Shilenge Foundation is tackling this problem of “period poverty” head-on with a simple, powerful solution.
“No girl deserves to miss school due to lack of sanitary pads,” says Thembi Shilenge, founder of the Foundation. “Restoring dignity is restoring a future.”
This belief fueled the Foundation’s 2023 Sanitary Pad Distribution Campaign, a massive undertaking that delivered over 50,000 sanitary pads to girls across five schools in the region. The impact was immediate: a measurable reduction in absenteeism and a visible boost in confidence among young learners.
But the Foundation’s “dignity-first” model doesn’t stop there. It recognizes that dignity is a multifaceted need. The same principle that provides pads to schoolgirls also guided the Foundation’s 2024 Children’s Day Outreach. This program provided meals and care packages to disabled children and their families, many of whom had traveled long distances for medical support, reinforcing a commitment to inclusive, compassionate care.
By systematically identifying and removing the barriers of dignity—whether it’s a sanitary pad, a meal, or a winter blanket for an elder—the Shilenge Foundation is proving that before you can empower a community, you must first affirm its worth. For the girls of Mmakaunyane, this means a future is no longer being missed one school day at a time.
Source: Authorityngr.com | Read the Full Story…
