No access to toilets or being confronted with toilets that are mostly blocked or dirty infringes on the learners’ rights to equality and human dignity in the Bill of Rights. Failing to ensure this access is a failure to protect their equal entitlement to learn under conditions that respect, protect and promote the inherent human dignity of each child. Case study: A Grade 11 learner at Kwamfundo Secondary School in Khayelitsha she explains that the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms are separate and that four of the seven taps work with no soap or paper towels. In the girls’ section six of the seven toilets works, but there is no toilet paper, no rubbish bins and the doors do not lock. There are sanitary bins that are only emptied out once they are full. She says the bathroom ‘stinks and is infested with flies’. She only uses the bathroom once she is desperate. If she were menstruating she would rather wait until she is home before going to the toilet. ‘This makes me very uncomfortable during class and makes learning harder, but I do not want to use that bathroom. I know of some girls at my school, if they are on their period and really want to go to the bathroom they will rather ask to go home and miss the rest of the school day than use the school’s bathroom to change. ‘When I cannot keep it in and I have to go to the bathroom, it is sometimes so dirty that I do not sit on the toilet seat and I use my foot to flush the toilet because I do not want to touch the handle.’ Some of the water points (taps) at the school do not work. Her description fit that of the many rural and peri-urban schools visited for this article. Source: health-e.org.za Contact @redwingsproject and get involved in giving young females their dignity. #FeminineSanitation #MenstruationMonday #RedHeelMonday #FemaleSanitationAwareness
