In South Africa, about 4 million girls, between the ages of 12 and 19, have little to no access to sanitary products. 

25% of these girls miss school each month because of this. The majority of these girls use newspaper, clothing or bark instead of using safe and absorbing pads.

I, Lané Louw, being a teenage girl myself, felt the need to support these girls. The thought of anyone having to go through the already horrible feeling of being on your period and then not even having the access to sanitary products horrified me. I got one of the youth leaders at Tygerberg Seventh-day Adventist church, Laura Hoffman, to be my right hand in the Streetwise project. 

We chose ‘I will go: Streetwise’ because God sent us on a mission. He showed us that there is a need for this project and that we need to find a sufficient and long-term solution, rather than a short-term fix.

We have partnered up with Tygerberg Meals on Wheels, a non profit organization. Backing us in this project is Tygerberg Seventh-day Adventist church. Together we aspire to provide as many teenage girls with re-useable pads as possible. We are using, Project Dignity, an organization that supports girls all over South Africa, to source the re-useable pads. These pads will last each girl between 3-5 years.

Starting off we have 3 schools we are aiming to support, Elnor Primary School, Elswood Primary and Elswood High School. There are about 360 girls between the ages of 12 and 19 in these 3 schools. The cost of supporting each girl with 2 re-useable pads and 1 panty, will be R79.90. In total we need to raise an estimated R19 300 (shipping included), to support all 360 girls. We are planning on handing out the products in the last week of November, giving us about a month and a half to collect as much money as possible. 

We believe the great and powerful God we serve will lead us through this journey and bless all the girls we support, the staff and the people standing with us in this project.