As part of its Mandela Day initiatives, the AfroCentric Group, South Africa’s largest diversified black-owned healthcare group, focused its attention on the young women at Letsibogo Girls’ High School in Soweto, by providing education and career guidance along with a handover of much-needed female sanitary supplies.
The AfroCentric Group spent the day at Letsibogo, where AfroCentric handed out sanitary pads and helped renovate and paint the school’s bathroom facilities. Most importantly, 15 female AfroCentric employees hosted a mini-career day to usher the girls on a positive career path and inspire them to start thinking about their futures.
According to General Manager of Group Communication and Corporate Affairs at the AfroCentric Group, Palesa Makhetha, the school was selected in line with efforts to ease the burden young black women in particular, face on a daily basis in this country.
As part of its commitment to the future success of South Africa’s young women, the AfroCentric group already provides a comprehensive bursary programme to bridge the gender gap in healthcare and empower young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). This already includes six young women who are now studying in the faculties of Medicine (MBChB) and Pharmacy (Bpharm) through fully paid bursaries.
However, Makhetha believes a good career path is rooted in dignity. “Considering adequate sanitary pads are increasingly inaccessible in the poorer parts of the country, mostly due to cost”, Makhetha said AfroCentric was always committed to providing sanitary pads for the learners at Letsibogo Girls’ High School.
“Providing sanitary pads and other hygiene products also supports learning by ensuring that female learners can focus on their learning rather than on whether they have sufficient supply of hygienic products,” she said.
She says not having access to sanitary products also puts their health at risk. “As a healthcare company, we cannot allow this norm to continue. This Mandela Day is our chance to highlight an issue that our young girls have suffered through for far too long. We need our girls to grow and lead our nation forward. This is why we are continuing our impact beyond Mandela Day.”
AfroCentric aims to build a long-term relationship with the Letsibogo Girls’ High School in Soweto with the mission to assist learners with their academics and invest in the school to make it a better learning environment the girls.
Filled with gratitude, Letsibogo Girls’ High School Principal, Mrs. Ellen Mathopo said, “I am passionate about young girls in general, I always have been even though I am a mother to boys only. I believe girls face more challenges and they need support and guidance more often”.
“Letsibogo like most schools in the townships frequently needs supports for everyday running of the school and activities and this is where organisations in the private sector like AfroCentric come in. But it’s not just about renovating the schools, it’s about renovating the futures of these young women,” concludes Makhetha.
