Rotaract Club of Blantyre has enlisted services of Patience Namadingo, Theo Thomson and Suffix in a bid to raise funds for reusable sanitary pads for school-going girls following concerns of high rate of dropouts.
Most school-going girls in Malawi do drop out of school due to, among other reasons, lack of sanitary pads especially during menstruation, and Rotaract Club which is a grouping of young women and men dedicated to community and international service, has decided to intervene.
Namadingo is expected to share a stage with Thomson and Suffix on February 18th, 2017 at M Theatre in a mini-concert that is expected to raise about K1.3 million for the reusable sanitary pads.
“The artists are doing the show for free because they share our belief that the girl-child also needs education, and therefore needs good sanitary materials to avoid missing days in school,” explained Victor Nyirenda past president for Rotaract Club of Blantyre.
“Funds raised at this show will be for the first phase of the donation which will cover standard 8 girls. We decided to donate embark in such initiative after research showed that a lot of girls drop out of school because of lacking sanitary pads when they start menstruating.”
The donation is first phase of two projects the Club is undertaking under the theme ‘Water and Sanitation’. The budget for the first project is K 1,033,500. And the total budget for the second project is K8, 166,500.00 which will be completed by November 2018.
“Rotaract club of Blantyre plans to donate reusable sanitary pads to girls at Nkolokoti primary school and build Eco San toilets at Bangwe primary schools,” added Nyirenda.
“As a club, we view education as something each child should have access to and it is that view that caused to desire to reduce the dropout rate of girls from school.”
Rotaract Club of Blantyre is a group of young men and women aged between 18 and 30 who are dedicated to community and international service. The Club is a division of Rotary International, which has 8000 clubs worldwide.