For £5, You Can Put A Girl Through School

This Christmas, the IG Inspire network is fundraising to support 505 South African girls who experience period poverty. The Chris Jan Botha secondary school in the west of Johannesburg serves the community of Bosmont. Student leader Paige Julius (16) approached IG, requesting support for her classmates who miss school every month because of a lack of access to sanitary products.

The global Inspire network has banded together to raise R262,000 (£12,800) to supply reusable cotton sanitary pads to the students of Chris Jan Botha in January 2023 – the start of the South African school year. The IG ESG committee will match the fundraising efforts pound for pound, which leaves a fundraising goal of R131,000 (£6,400).

The washable, reusable pads are made of cotton fleece and is manufactured by a South African woman-owned small business, LuLi&Co. Each pack costs R520 (£27) and consists of 9 pads in various sizes. In addition to the packs, each girl will receive a bar of Sunlight soap (a South African household staple) and instructions on how to safely use the products.

“In South Africa, where poverty and gender-based violence is rife, supporting the education of girls can quite literally change lives. I am incredibly grateful to my Inspire sisters for their unwavering support for this project,” said Kristia van Heerden, who is running the Johannesburg leg of the project.

“We know period poverty is a global concern. We are therefore using this as a pilot project to be replicated next year in another of IG’s territories.”

500 million women around the world are impacted by a lack of access to sanitary products, impacting their ability to participate in economic and educational activities.

• In South Africa, 30% of school-aged girls skip school due to period poverty.
• In the UK, 50% of survey respondents indicated they couldn’t afford sanitary products in the previous year.
• In India, 40%of students don’t attend school due to a lack of access to sanitary products.
• In Australia, one in five women use unsuitable alternatives due to a lack of access to sanitary products.
• In Japan, 10% of women between 18 and 29 frequently have difficulty accessing menstrual products.
• 16.9 million women in the US are living in poverty, of whom two-thirds couldn’t afford menstrual products in the last year.

Help the Inspire network fight period poverty this Christmas by donating here: https://assets.gogetfunding.com/end-period-poverty-for-ch...

Please also share the campaign with friends and family who would want to support the education of low-income girls.