MASERU – NO girl child should miss school because of a “natural phenomenon”.
That was the message from Standard Lesotho Bank (SLB) CEO, Mpho Vumbukani, as he handed over sanitary towels to students at Mazenod High School last week.
The bank partnered with Queen ’Masenate Mohato Seeiso’s initiative “Hlokomela Banana” for the initiative.
Vumbukani said Standard Lesotho Bank staff individually contributed M67 each towards the initiative. A total of M31 000 was raised by staff with the bank contributing another M31 000 to bring the total to M62 000.
The money will be used to take care of a thousand girls in all of Lesotho’s ten districts.
Mazenod High School was selected as the first beneficiary of the project. At least 390 girls will receive a pack of sanitary towels for the whole year.
The programme at Mazenod will run from August this year to August next year.
“We have also made a pledge for 2019 so that we sustain the momentum and grow this new relationship we have forged with Hlokomela Banana,” Vumbukani said.
“So we will be back again next year going into 2020.”
He said they were excited to launch this initiative in August which is celebrated as the African Women’s Month.
’Masefatsa Makibinyane, a teacher at Mazenod, urged boys to help the girls to have confidence by making them aware they have soiled themselves instead of mocking them.
She said some girls cannot afford to buy sanitary towels, hence they find this initiative very commendable.
She thanked the bank for its kind gesture.
The manager of the school, Sister Augustina Thokoa, said it is not by default that God decided that girls should undergo this natural phenomenon.
She therefore urged girls to be proud of themselves.
Puleng Mafa, a student, pleaded with everybody in the corporate world to “do as the Blue Bank has done and Hlokomela Banana so that the world could be a better place”.
Vumbukani said the gesture was their way to demonstrate how “they touch lives” and bring hope to girls who they believe are the generation that will lead the bank and the country into the future.
“So they must be nurtured, respected and empowered from now onward,” he said.
Tokase Mphutlane