In light of International Day of Yoga held on 21 June each year, and as an avid yogini myself, I dedicate this post to illuminating how Yoga can make you a better person – more compassionate and more capable of looking out for others. Now this may come as a surprise to those of us […]
This past Friday, 12 April, was International Day for Street Children, and its occurrence got me thinking: Why do we need a special day to remind us to see the potential in every street child – to recognise their humanity and to do what we can to help? Especially in a South Africa where we […]
Just one small action has the power to change many lives and make a real difference. And none know this better than the South African nation. South Africa is a diverse country of differing demographics, cultures and beliefs, where the poverty line is high, the tolerance line low, and wealth and basic amenities unequally distributed. […]
If you missed your chance to do good this 18 July, moenie bekommer nie (don’t worry) – you can make every day a Mandela Day! At Brownie Points we believe in being an active citizen whenever and wherever we can and breathing the spirit of Madiba into everything that we do. Every consistent action and […]
If you had the power to change the world, what would you do? Give some thought to that answer. No, really. Stop. Think. Write it down. Why? Because you do have the power to change the world. One small good deed at a time. “It always seems impossible until it’s done” – Nelson Mandela […]
On a sunny Thursday, the 16th of February, we joined some of our volunteers at Zerilda Park Primary School in Lavender Hill for World Read Out Loud Day, hosted by one of our Nonprofit Partners: Learning In Reach. It was a truly unforgettable experience! Leanne, founder of Learning In Reach (NPO) and all-round superwoman, welcomed us […]
protected by the mountains surrounding Montagu, is a dynamic rural school where dreams are big and funds are low… A few weeks ago, I scrolled through a public nonprofit Facebook group called SA NPO Network (by the way, this group is an amazing source of information for all nonprofit people out there). I came across a […]
Halli Trust was one of our first Nonprofit Partners to sign up, and we’ve just been blown away by the passion and enthusiasm of their team. Started by Heidi Naude in 2008, the organisation is doing amazing work with several communities in the Helderberg area of the Western Cape. We were curious to find out […]
We are so pleased to have IkamvaYouth as one of the first Brownie Points Nonprofit Partners. Since 2003, IkamvaYouth has equipped learners from disadvantaged communities with the knowledge, skills, networks and resources to access tertiary education and/or employment opportunities once they matriculate. We caught up with Hetile Mabunda from the IkamvaYouth team to find a out […]
Theodora Lee is a YouTuber, blogger, copywriter and business owner specializing in digital content creation. If you haven’t yet, visit her blog and YouTube channel.
Theodora explains her role in The Lily Cup Project below:
As a South African advice and lifestyle YouTuber with over 200K subscribers, giving back is part of what I do. With a fairly affluent international audience, I think it’s important to leverage my views for positive change, beyond self and career gain.
I’m also a proud South African and a woman. Something I feel strongly about is menstrual health. I have an entire YouTube playlist dedicated to periods! When I speak about that ‘time of the month’ online, I speak as though we can all afford the luxury of sanitary products each month. When I learned how many girls in South Africa can’t afford sanitary products and are suffering each month, because of something so natural, I wanted to do something. I needed to raise awareness about what many of us haven’t stopped to think about before.
So I teamed up with a Swedish menstrual cup company called Intimina. They make reusable menstrual cups that can be used for up to 10 years! I told them about the situation and how I wanted to make a change and empower women who are using newspapers, re-using dirty pads and getting unsafe and untested injections to ‘make their shameful periods disappear.’ Thankfully, Intimina jumped on board and decided to donate 4000 Lily Cup Compacts to the cause in exchange for an awareness video.
I needed to get my audience involved in some way and I knew that distributing 4000 cups would take more than just simply handing them over. So I thought I’d start a fundraising campaign to help with additional costs. Money needed to be raised to help NGOs Bunang Baswa and The Dream Factory (NGOs I selected at the start of the project) to distribute the cups, along with highly important education on how to use them and period health in general.
My viewers were moved by the video and jumped at the opportunity to help. Within a few days we reached our target of $2500 and the number keeps climbing. The money can now also be used for supplying every girl with new panties and soap when they receive a Lily Cup after the workshop we’re currently putting together to educate and uplift the girls on menstrual and sexual health.
Moreover, we hope to empower these girls and inspire mentorship in their own communities surrounding the taboo topic of periods. We want people to speak out and in a way become proud and stand up for their periods.
Even though The Lily Cup Project is empowering 4000 girls, which is incredible, I want the word to spread. I want Lily Cup Project to create waves and inspire simple, yet impactful changes in SA, like free bathroom dispensaries to include sanitary products and not just condoms. That would be something…
Theodora Lee is a YouTuber, blogger, copywriter and business owner specializing in digital content creation. If you haven’t yet, visit her blog and YouTube channel. Theodora explains her role in The Lily Cup Project below: As a South African advice and lifestyle YouTuber with over 200K subscribers, giving back is part of what I do. With […]