Female empowerment activist and Nelson Mandela Bay legal eagle Tasneem Fredericks will be doing it for the ladies when she embarks on her trek up Kilimanjaro as part of the Imbumba Foundation’s Trek4Mandela initiative.
As part of the End Period Poverty campaign with the Imbumba Foundation, Fredericks, along with a group of other activists from across SA, will be climbing the highest mountain in Africa aiming to create awareness and raise funds to keep young girls in school.
“We will be raising funds to ensure girl children have access to sanitary pads and awareness on this vital issue of normalising menstruation,” Fredericks said.
The LLB graduate and law firm director said growing up during the height of apartheid and having experienced the social injustices of an oppressive regime had drawn her towards activism.
Fredericks said it was inevitable that her path would lead to law and activism.
“What I have learnt is that often I could bring my activism to corporate through advocating for social change on the boards I serve,” she said.
The former deputy-president of the Black Management Forum (BMF) and the chair of the BMF Woman Empowerment Desk said issues relating to women and girls were a big part of her mandate.
“My former role at the BMF is what drew me to Trek4Mandela and I hope to do the organisation proud and fly the BMF flag high.
“All quests for justice are important to me but more specifically the quest for menstrual justice is particularly close to me as I have a young daughter who recently started her period.
“I often think how radically different her life would be if she was one of the seven million girls who missed up to 50 days of schooling due to period poverty.
“Misinformation and deliberate confusion around menstrual hygiene reinforces the belief that being on your period is dirty or impure.
“The message is simple: Normalise menstruation by showing your support and rally behind ending period poverty in South Africa,” she said.
Fredericks will be leaving SA on July 12 and is expected to summit Kilimanjaro on July 18 after a five-day climb along the Marangu Route.
“What makes this climb so special is that the summit is on Madiba’s birthday.
“It’s truly a climb for dignity and totally in line with the values and hopes he had for South Africa,” Fredericks said.
As part of her training, Fredericks has participated in compulsory hikes, organised by the Imbumba Foundation, in the Drakensberg and Suikerbos which she had been doing since last year on a monthly basis.
“Of course Covid wiped all of that away [so] I started yoga last year, thrice a week, and since the beginning of this week intensified my yoga to a daily practice and started daily breath work classes as well,” she said.
Apart from yoga, Fredericks has started walking at least 15km per week for the past four weeks and also did a few ice baths in the smallest container she could fit into.
“I am carbo-loading this week and will be packing snacks for the climb,” she said.
HeraldLIVE
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