Leaders including Sophie Williams-De Bruyn, Trevor Manuel and Mfundi Vundla received the jab this week to show citizens the vaccines are safe and to encourage eligible citizens to register to get vaccinated.
COVID-19 vaccines. (Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash)
As phase two of the COVID-19 vaccination drive gets underway this week, new research shows that vaccine acceptance on the continent is high.
More than two thirds of respondents (67%) to a telephonic survey said that they would get the COVID-19 vaccine when it’s available. The survey, launched earlier this week, was conducted by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC) and aims to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on the African continent.
Conducted in February, and using data from over 24 000 individuals, the research found that Morocco had the highest level of vaccine acceptance (91%) while only 35% of respondents were willing to get vaccinated in Tunisia and Cameroon. Data for vaccine acceptance in South Africa was not included in the report.
Going beyond protest. (File Photo)
A new generation of South Africans are questioning what freedom means for women and the LGBTQIA+ community. The Break the Silence Movement says it intends on taking conversations about gender-based violence beyond hashtags.
As South Africa wrapped April, the month in which the country commemorates Freedom Day, a group of women are questioning those celebrations when women are not truly free. Known as the so-called Born Free generation, they are challenging what freedom means in South Africa today.
Zaylia Vivienne and Boitumelo Thage gathered with women in Pretoria to share their experiences of gender-based violence and how it still curtails their freedom. They discussed issues of femicide, rape, abuse, and the targeting the LGBTQIA+ community.
Sanitary pads and tampons. (Natracare/Unsplash)
The ♯HelpHetta Project seeks to address the needs of girls and young women beyond sanitary pads and hygiene products after lockdown restrictions revealed overlooked disparities.
As they struggled to deliver sanitary pads to hundreds of young women during the COVID-19 lockdown, an organisation discovered that the need was far greater than they thought.
Solidarity Helping Hand has been supporting girls from poor families with parcels consisting of sanitary pads and hygiene products. For seven years the group has supported 3,000 girls from 107 schools through the #HelpHetta project.
When the lockdown restrictions imposed last year, they were unable to deliver the parcels to the girls. Over 1,432 more girls applied to receive support from the project support Solidarity Helping Hand could not afford.
Thousands of learners who cannot afford to buy sanitary pads were left vulnerable. (File)
With budgets diverted to food parcels, nearly 180,000 Gauteng learners did not receive dignity packs, which include sanitary towels. Health-e spoke to learners who were left vulnerable by the decision.
Thousands of Gauteng learners were left vulnerable when the provincial Department of Social Development (DSD) failed to deliver their dignity packs in recent months.
The Department of Women, Youths and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) launched the Sanitary Dignity Programme in 2019. The programme was meant to implemented for quantile one to three schools. The National Treasury also made funds available so that the programme could run in all nine provinces.