Mission to restore dignity for girls and women

Grassy Park resident Chantelle Goliath's journey to end period poverty in her community is deeply personal and rooted in her own experiences growing up in poverty.

- KEANAN HARMSE

Grassy Park resident Chantelle Goliath is campaigning to provide more young women with sanitary pads.

(PHOTO: SUPPLIED)

As a founder of New Heritage Foundation (NHF) Goliath helps to provide sanitary pads and workshops for young girls in disadvantaged communities who lack access to these products and knowledge of how to cope with menstruation.

NHF is an award-winning, women-led nonprofit organisation (NPO) based in Cape Town, dedicated to ending period poverty. They focus on period impact initiatives, aiming to ensure no young girl or woman is left behind due to menstruation.

Goliath spoke with People's Post and highlighted her mission to restoring dignity in the lives of young and older women in her community. She's a mother to three daughters.

As a young girl, she often lacked access to sanitary pads.

“My family struggled with poverty, and sanitary pads were not something we could always afford. I often had to use toilet paper, newspaper, or wear pads much longer than what was healthy because we simply did not have access to basic menstrual products,” she recalled.

These hardships forced her to leave school at the age of 16 to support her family.