Trust no: IT1413/2011/PMB – Charity no: NPO: 105 134

Concept Note

“KEEPING THE GIRL CHILD IN SCHOOL” CAMPAIGN

Reg: Trust no: IT1413/2011/PMB – NPO: 105 – 134 – Office no.29, ZCBF Community Park, NGO Office Park, South Central Arterial,

Alton Richards Bay 3900 – Tel: 035 797 3800 – Fax 035 797 3134 – email: richard@imbumbafoundation.org web: www.imbumbafoundation.org

BACKGROUND

Caring4Girls is a sanitary towels distribution programme to keep young girls in school during their monthly cycles. The programmes focuses on creating awareness on puberty and adolescent and in the process demystify all menstrual related myths. The programme was started in 2012 after Richard Mabaso (concept innovator) overhead a fearful conversation between his mom and niece about menstruation which to this day is deemed taboo by many societies. It focuses on the following areas: education and training on: puberty and menstrual hygiene management, handling, usage and disposal of sanitary towels in poor and rural schools or communities.

Research has revealed that most poor girls may miss up to 50 days of schooling annually due to the lack of access to adequate sanitary protection. It is against these shocking statistics that Imbumba Foundation established Caring4Girls to achieve the following:

Reach and support as many poor girls as possible with sanitary towels.

Create menstrual hygiene awareness through education and training.

Establish Caring4Girls Advocacy Groups in schools.

Reduce school a high number of school absenteeism and drop-outs caused by menstrual related challenges.

Holistic development and empowerment of both girls and boys through our Vision 2020 Leadership Programme. Before establishing Caring4Girls in the same year (2012), Richard launched the Trek4Mandela expedition which is an initiative to climb and summit Mount Kilimanjaro for Mandela Day. The climb supports Caring4Girls through raising a minimum number of 67000 packets of sanitary pads in line with the 67minutes for Mandela Day. Over the past 3 years both Trek4Mandela and Caring4Girls programmes have been recognized by the Nelson Mandela Foundation as innovative concepts that help “Make every day a MANDELA Day”.

Our target for 2016/17 is to reach and support 350 000 and 2, 000 000 by year 2020.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Step One: Once funding is confirmed, our facilitator visits the school/s to engage with teachers and learners to establish baseline information or school profile. All girls from the school will receive sanitary pads.

Step Two: Once beneficiaries are identified, the next step is the completion of Caring4Girls registration forms for evidence and accountability purposes.

Step Three: Puberty and menstrual hygiene training by our female facilitators trained by Lil-lets We are Women. The reason for female facilitators is to make sure girls can engage freely and also be able to do a ‘Girl Talk’. The training is based on the following: puberty, personal and menstrual hygiene, handling, usage and disposal of sanitary pads more especially in rural areas. Girls are taught not to dump sanitary pads in areas where they can easily make their way back into river streams and contaminate what in most cases will be the only source of water for the community.

Step Four: Distribution of sanitary pads to all beneficiaries. This is when each girl received three or four packets of sanitary pads to help keep them in school while resting their pride and dignity.

Step Five:

Ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

WHAT IS OUR SELECTION CRITERIA? Orphaned and vulnerable girls from child headed homesteads. Poor or no fee schools. Teenage pregnancy hot spots.

Quintal 1 to 5 schools. ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS Reached and touched the lives of over 273,000 girls throughout South Africa since 2012 –

mainly in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga Provinces. Distributed over 2, 000,000

packets of much needed sanitary towels to needy girls from rural and impoverished schools.

Integration with Teach Children to Save South Africa™ programme of The Banking Association South Africa. Partnered with Lil-lets ‘We are Women’ to mobilise sponsorship worth over R5 Million. Endorsement by the MEC of Education in Mpumalanga Province through her policy and budget speech in May 2013. Subsequent unwavering support by the National Minister of Basic Education and national

launch on 3 September 2013.

Integration with Umkhosi Womhlanga (Zulu Royal Reed Dance) – to support young maidens. Support by Her Royal Highness Queen Nompumelelo Zulu.

Endorsement by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Mrs Graça Machel. Enrolment of two of the first beneficiaries at two universities: Charlotte Sibiya and Nombuso Sibiya who are currently studying BSc and Software engineering at Fort Hare and University of Johannesburg respectively.

Endorsement by MEC of Education in KwaZulu-Natal Province on the 23

rd of September

2014. Partnered with Dis-Chem, Dis-Chem Foundation and Independent Media to collect over 6, 000, 000 pads through Million Comforts campaign.

First prize winner – Peermont CSI awards 2015 and 2016.Invited by Oxford University in the

UK to attend the first-ever menstrual hygiene management conference on the 15th

of June 2016. Dignity, pride, girl empowerment and nation-building are the cornerstones of Caring4Girls. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? The costs are as follows:

R30 to keep one girl in school for a month. R360 to keep one girl in school for 12 months or one year.

Funds are payable on the following terms: annually, bi-annual or quarterly. What is included in the R360 package?

Twelve (12) packets of sanitary pads for one year.

Co-branded booklet.

Co-branded drawstring bag.

Caring4Girls pledge card or bookmark.

Transportation of the pads from suppliers to all schools.

Facilitation/ Monitoring and Evaluation.

Project set-up.

WHEN CAN THE ROLLOUT START? The ideal times for the programme rollout are as follows:

January/February – back-to-school campaign.

May – Menstrual Hygiene Month.

August – National Women’s Month.

October – Final Examinations (ensuring that girls can stay in school for their exams).

RETURN ON INVESTMENT Partner in an innovative public-private-partnership programme which emancipates girl children from poor backgrounds.

Same as Charlotte and Nombuso we will identify and empower more girls with potential to help them realize their goals in life.

Invest in a programme that has real and tangible case studies with direct social impact.

Media/ or PR coverage during our quarterly distributions.

Direct access to meet and interact with the beneficiaries regularly. Leave along lasting legacy in

the schools and communities involved.

Caring4Girls addresses needs in education, health, gender equality and women empowerment in line with some of the main CSI focus areas for most companies. It creates hope for a better future in many young girls.

In essence our programme helps companies turn the CSI obligation into an opportunity.

Imbumba Foundation is registered to issue section 18a certificates and is Level 4 BEE contributor.

COLLECTION FROM DEPOTS TO OUR STORAGE FACILITIES Through the Lil-lets/ Premier Group distribution network we are able to deliver sanitary towels in some of the most remote areas across South

Africa and we also have projects in Mozambique and Botswana.

STORAGE FACILITIES We currently have four storage facilities: KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Western Cape Provinces. KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng

provinces have the biggest storage facilities and they also operate as our major packaging centres for all stock going to various schools.

Between 2012 and 2014, we have distributed sanitary pads in all nine provinces through our extensive network of partners and reliable

facilitators in each province.

PUBERTY EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Our puberty education lessons are done in schools and we have recently established a partnership with Enyokeni Palace of the Zulu Royal Family to do puberty education at the Annual Royal Zulu Reed Dance Ceremony at KwaNongoma.

Distributions to beneficiaries or end-users – we have supported over 100 schools since 2012.

Endorsing voices: Basic Education Minister (Mrs A Motshekga), Mpumalanga & KZN Education MECs, Mrs Graca Machel and Her Royal

Highness Queen N Zulu