Irista Primary School in Sarepta was one of four schools in the Western Cape to receive a sanitary towel vending machine last week at the end of Women’s month.

The donation, an important step to help ensure girls don’t miss school, was part of the LadyUp project of a Kuils River based registered non-profit organisation, Friends With Compassion (FWC).

Founding director of FWC, Keith Davids says FWC, “is a group of friends who strive to do good by helping individuals, small charities, communities or fundraising initiatives”.

Since inception in 2017, they have steered several charity drives such as a sanitary towel drive to donate to schools and shelters, and a toy and clothing drive for children’s homes, shelters and daycare centres. “We have also initiated a ‘Blessing Bag’ drive through which we donated essential toiletries to shelters and schools.”

Davids says FWC’s LadyUp project was initiated with the aim of making a difference in girls’ lives. “One of or annual initiatives is to collect and distribute sanitary towels to girls who can’t afford to buy their own.”

To make this possible they have decided to partner with the MENstruation Foundation that manufacture and install the sanitary towel vending machines.

The four vending machines at Irista, Bonteheuwel High School, Riebeeck West (Swartland) and Bontebok (Swellendam) primary schools as part of the FWC LadyUp project were funded by the Anglo American Ambassador for Good initiative, supported by the Anglo American Foundation, Davids says.

“The MENstruation Foundation will install, maintain and restock the vending machines for the next 12 months”, says Davids.

According to their website the MENstruation Foundation, is a non-profit organisation that strives to create free access to sanitary towels for young women during their menstrual cycle.

The vending machines work with a token that can be used to retrieve a pack of eight sanitary towels. The compact machines do not use electricity and work on a simple rotation system. It is normally installed in bathrooms or the sickbays at schools (which offers privacy). The sanitary towels are also locally manufactured and compostable.

Davids says the school girls will receive the tokens from a dedicated person at each school to get access to their free pack of sanitary towels.

“Our plan is to partner with the schools where the machines were installed to make the project more self-sufficient.”

After the initial stock provided for 12 months the schools will be responsible to raise funds to stock the machines.

“We told them; it’s not a handout but a hand up - hence it’s called the LadyUp project. We will help them to maintain it as well, we are not just going to drop something and walk away. We will walk the journey with them to ensure the girls are sorted for at least a couple of years. Year on year there will be fundraisers to help stock the machine,” says Davids.

Local businesses or others who would want to get involved in sponsoring vending machines or continued stock of sanitary towels can contact Davids.

Contact info@friendswithcompassion.co.za if you would like to get involved.

The Sport Report - Weekly

Get the Sport Report every Thursday to stay up to speed with everything you need to know in the world of sport.

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.