The Joburg Ladies Open International Golf Tournament is all about impact and purpose this year.
The tournament is doing this through the “Dignity for a Girl Child” project, which was established to restore the dignity of pubescents at an Alexandra primary school, north of Joburg.
The City initiative is being carried out in collaboration with the multinational retailer Spar, which is donating a dignity sanitary pack for each professional golfer’s birdie for the duration of the tournament. A birdie is a hole score of one stroke under par.
The dignity pack Spar is putting together consists of sanitary pads, toothpaste, washing cloths, toothbrushes, deodorant, and spray.
During the second round of play, the birdie total stood at 864 and the number of eagles was at 34. It is most likely that by the end of the tournament, the number of birdies could surpass 1000, which will augur well for the school in Alex.
Bongi Mokaba, the City’s Director of Event Management and the tournament promoter is excited about how the project will impact Zenzeleni Primary School
.
“It’s important for us as a City and as a tournament driven by women to restore and maintain the dignity of girl children,” said Mokaba.
The tournament promoter was moved by what was said when the City visited Zenzeleni to share the project with its principal.
She noted that the principal informed the Joburg Ladies Open delegation that when young girls at the school go through puberty, which is the process of physical and hormonal changes that occur throughout adolescence, they find it difficult to leave the classroom during lunch break.
“Girls should never miss class because they are going through their menstrual cycle,” the school principal said.
The Executive Mayor, Cllr Thapelo Amad, will deliver the collected packs to Zenzeleni Primary School on Monday, 6 March, two days after the tournament has wrapped up.
DID YOU KNOW?
The professional women’s golf event is hosted by the City of Johannesburg to make the sport accessible to females. It is co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour and the Sunshine Ladies Tour. The tournament is presently underway at the Modderfontein Golf Club, east of Johannesburg.
INFO SUPPLIED.
