Taking Female Dignity to New Heights

Executives climb awe-inspiring Kilimanjaro to raise funds and awareness for charity

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 14 June 2018 – Caring 4 Girls is a charity that focuses on providing sanitary pads to young women from disadvantaged backgrounds, so they don’t have to miss school because of their natural, but often hampering, monthly menstruation. The charity’s research indicates that girls could miss up to 50 days of school a year due to menstrual-related challenges. UNICEF indicates that more educated women tend to be healthier, work and earn more income, have fewer children and provide better health care and education to their children.[i]

In addition to providing sanitary pads to young women across the nation, Caring4Girls aims to create 100 Bursaries to support 100 girls from specific schools and to adopt 100 schools per province to benefit from the project. The goal is to also reach two million girls by the year 2020, providing monthly menstrual support and effective hygiene and health education. Samsung is getting involved and has chosen Phomolong Secondary School as one of the schools it will be supporting within this initiative and into the future.

One of the ways in which the charity raises funds and awareness is to challenge executives to summit Kilimanjaro, which at about 4,900 metres from its base and 5,895 metres above sea-level, is the highest mountain in Africa,.^[ii] Although the climb is now in its seventh year, the 2018 expedition is extra special as it celebrates what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday. Two summit dates are scheduled; 18 July to celebrate Mandela Day and 9 August to commemorate National Woman’s Day. Some 67 participants will ensure their effort makes a difference in a girl’s life.

On 9 August, Sung Yoon, CEO & President Samsung Electronics Africa, will be joining the trek. He says, “It is an honour to be able to participate in this highly important charitable campaign. The young women that are positively impacted by Caring 4 Girls are an integral part of South Africa’s future.”

It’s not a gentle walk up the incredible mountain and every participant has had to undergo extensive training to ensure they are able to make the summit. The 2018 expedition aims to raise enough funds to ensure that 500,000 girl children will not miss a day of school and give much-needed accessibility to sanitary towels. The target of the 2018 Trek Target is to raise funds to procure 6,000,000 packets of sanitary pads, (60,000,000 pads).

The 67 executives who will be joining the climb on both the summit dates will all be kitted out with a Samsung Gear Fit Pro2, so counting their steps, monitoring heart rate and capturing their personal bests in terms of activity will be a breeze.

Justin Hume, Chief Marketing Officer for Samsung South Africa, says, “We’re really excited about this initiative and will be eagerly watching and supporting the participants as they trek up the mountain – it’s an incredibly worthy cause and we’ll be rooting for their success, not only of the climb, but all their efforts to raise funds and awareness.”

[i] https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/SAF_resources_gembrief.pdf

[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kilimanjaro