Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Johannesburg, South Africa (26 August 2015) – Ruby Chikwiri is an incredible South African making a difference. She started a project two years ago which provides young underprivileged school girls with sanitary pads.
The 19-year-old is studying BCom Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Cape Town and is currently in her second year.
Realising the disparities in education, gender equality, and health drove her to devote herself to sanitary drives.
“Pads are just as important as pens and paper when it comes to education” is the sentence she has lived by since starting the campaigns for sanitary towels at the age of 16. She has to date donated 53,000 sanitary towels to underprivileged girls in South Africa.
“A lot of girls are missing out on school because they do not have sanitary pads,” she says.
Ruby came up with the idea of sanitary pads as a committee member of the Johannesburg Junior Council (JJC), an organisation comprising high school learners from different backgrounds that creates awareness of various issues affecting youth.
“We started a collection drive which saw 30,000 pads being donated to 476 girls over 6 months at Sigodiphole Secondary School in Cosmo City but that was just the start.”
Ruby plans to continue with this project and assist as many people as possible, and for this year on Mandela Day she will be handing over another 21,000 to girls in need.
Catch her interview on CliffCentral by clicking here.
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