Time Square donates over 1 200 sanitary products to keep Soshanguve girls in school

Staff at Time Square in Pretoria collected over 600 sanitary products for girls at Soshanguve High School, with the casino matching the donation.

When the COVID-19 pandemic affected Time Square’s ability to carry out its usual socio-economic development projects, staff at the Pretoria casino stepped up to help the communities that would normally benefit from these initiatives.

After hearing about the impact of period poverty (which refers to the lack of sanitary products) on girl learners at Soshanguve High School, the staff rallied to buy and collect pads and tampons. The casino matched the staff donation, with over 1 200 sanitary products delivered to the school last week.

According to a report by the Global Citizen organisation, an estimated 3.7 million South African girls cannot afford sanitary products. Some 30% of girl learners do not attend school while they are menstruating, according to a Stellenbosch University study.

“The school serves an underprivileged community. Many families survive on a government grant. Unfortunately, sanitary pads are seen as a luxury. Most learners will either stay at home when they are on their period because they fear being mocked by others or ask teachers for pads that we don’t always have,” said Sindi Ndlovu, a head of department at the school.

“Getting your period should be a time to embrace your womanhood, but it isn’t for these girls. Instead, it's yet another financial challenge.” — Sindi Ndlovu

Time Square adopted the school as part of Sun International’s Adopt-A-School initiative, which sees business units identifying schools to support, from maintaining infrastructure to donating much-needed learning materials.

“The pandemic hampered our ability to help our adopted schools, but we still want to make an impact in the communities which fall under our operating licence,” said Time Square General Manager Ruben Gooranah. “We came up with a project to donate sanitary pads to the school – whatever the staff collected, we doubled.

“Our people were eager to help the school, with departments competing to collect the most sanitary products. Some collected money and went out and bought the products themselves.”

The sanitary products will be kept at the school and distributed every month.

Time Square adopted the school as part of Sun International’s Adopt-A-School initiative, which sees business units identifying schools to support, from maintaining infrastructure to donating much-needed learning materials.

“The pandemic hampered our ability to help our adopted schools, but we still want to make an impact in the communities which fall under our operating licence,” said Time Square General Manager Ruben Gooranah. “We came up with a project to donate sanitary pads to the school – whatever the staff collected, we doubled.

“Our people were eager to help the school, with departments competing to collect the most sanitary products. Some collected money and went out and bought the products themselves.”

The sanitary products will be kept at the school and distributed every month.