Committed to uplifting young girls in the Kouga region, three women set out a plan to educate primary school learners on important topics and bless each with a gift bag filled with essential toiletries.
Five years after initiating their project, Female Friday, the organisation has finally been registered as a Non-Profit Company, enabling them to impact the lives of many more girls.
In 2019, Thandi Radebe, Bernadette Swartz, and Sarah Darby began their Female Friday project in conjunction with Jeffreys Bay-based Oasis FM, Healthy Mom and Baby Clinic, The Journey Counselling Centre, and the community at large.
Darby has since moved home to Zimbabwe, while Radebe and Swartz have remained determined to continue helping as many young girls as they can.
Swartz said that when they began the project, they always envisioned that Female Friday would be a fully-fledged organisation.
Finally, five years on, they have registered their organisation as an NPC.
Swartz said that in 2019 they noticed young girls often walked around their neighbourhood or sat on the side of the road while wearing their pyjamas in the middle of the day.
While the three women spoke about this issue, they began wondering how they could approach the young girls in their community without discouraging them.
“We knew we could not just say ‘don’t do it’; instead we needed to speak to them about identity and self-worth,” said Swartz.
She said they then decided to focus on Grade 7 female learners at various schools in Kouga, to educate them about hygiene and empower them before they started high school.
Some of the topics covered include peer pressure, purity, self-worth, identity, and female health.
Furthermore, they also have guest speakers share their testimonies with the young girls.
Swartz said they wanted to bless the girls with essential items and began offering individually-wrapped gift bags filled with roll-on, spray, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, sanitary towels, and lotion.
She said a well-known local dressmaker, Mari du Toit, suggested they add a brand-new brassiere to the gift bag after she noticed that many young girls did not have brassieres during their matric dress fittings.
“It was then decided that to make this project unique, a bra would be added to the gift bag,” said Swartz.
She said Radebe receives a list of the girls’ names at the identified schools and then arranges for a team to measure each girl for their correct brassiere size.
“Once all the measurements are completed, the list of sizes is sent to various organisations who donate gift bags. These lists are double-checked to ensure that no girl is left out,” said Swartz.
“Each gift bag comes back with the name attached and some people go as far as to write letters to the girls.”
Swartz said the vision of Female Friday is to get the entire community involved so that more girls can be reached.
She said they prefer people to buy gift bags or donate items, but monetary donations are also welcomed.
She said they have received regular donations from the Healthy Mom and Baby Clinic, Oasis FM, Pep, and Kouga Municipality, for which they are very grateful.
Swartz further said they are hoping more sponsors will get involved.
As part of the Female Friday programme, Swartz said that at the start of each year she and Radebe list each school that they will visit for the year with farm schools in Loerie, Patensie, and Hankey a focus point last year.
This year, Swartz said they are focusing on schools in Jeffreys Bay and Humansdorp.
“The principals are very grateful when we visit their schools and the faces of the young girls when they receive their gifts are priceless,” said Swartz.
For more information, or to contribute to the project, contact Bernadette Swartz at 073 099 3418 or Thandi Radebe at 061 532 6379.
Donated items can be dropped off at Oasis FM or the Healthy Mom and Baby Clinic.
