HOT Cares Gets Behind The Dis-Chem Foundation’s ‘A Million Comforts’ Campaign

For Hot Cares, the primary goal remains making a meaningful difference to the lives of those around us.

With that in mind, whilst most of the stories that appear here detail an intervention Hot Cares makes to help an organisation or individual, we also like to support the initiatives of our partners who are also doing good in the community.

Like The Dis-Chem Foundation, which since 2015 has been running its ‘A Million Comforts’ initiative. It aims to provide sanitary pads to teenage girls in need and is committed to the empowerment of schoolgirls, raising awareness about women’s health, and giving these girls the opportunity to continue their education without the burden of hygiene risks, discomfort, embarrassment, or the loss of dignity.

On an average day, more than 800 million women and girls have their monthly period around the world, but many still face hardships when it comes to accessing menstrual sanitary products.

Too many young women in South Africa often battle to access sanitary pads during their menstruation period and this leaves them feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed. Many young girls cannot go to school during this time due to a lack of sanitary ware and in some cases a lack of proper hygiene facilities at school.

This can cause shame, which in turn can lead to girls missing classes and falling behind. This further exacerbates the stigmatisation of periods, which are a natural occurrence for women and girls.

Quite simply, ‘period poverty’ can directly affect a child’s education – something attested to by Charlotte Sibiya, who told her story to the HOT 1027 Breakfast team on air.

“I am who I am today thanks to the courage I got after being introduced to A Million Comforts,” she said. “Knowing that there are people supporting you and cheering you on to be your best, I was able to persevere through school and now I am a teacher”.

This year’s goal is to collect 10 million pads and Hot Cares is getting firmly behind this campaign, supporting The Dis-Chem Foundation.

We’ll be at Centre Court at Sandton City on Saturday 29 July from 09h00. We are encouraging all HOT 102.7FM listeners to come through and visit us, along with asking those with the means to bring donations of sanitary pads. We’ll also have the HOT 102.7FM Cash Cube with us and there’ll be the chance to win some amazing prizes.

Most importantly, you will be helping us to support the worthy A Million Comforts campaign.

If you would like to donate, you can email info@hotcares.co.za for further information. Similarly, if you are a prospective partner of Hot Cares, or if you are in a position to donate towards making a meaningful difference, or have a story to alert us to, or a programme you’d like to partner with Hot Cares on, please get in touch with us by emailing the same address.