The girls at Nonhlevu Secondary School in Groutville were given good reason to celebrate recently, when Margaret Hirsch visited the school to hand out Girls With Dignity Panty packs to over 400 girls at the school.
She was also there to present cheques to three girls who won a competition set by her at the end of last year entitled “looking back”.
To the sounds of “She’s A Lady”, the girls clapped and danced to welcome Margaret and her entourage.
Margaret started Hirsch’s, now a billion rand company, with her husband, Allan, 35 years ago with just R900. Over the last two years, she has won several Business Woman Of the Year Awards, culminating in a Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship from Sanlam in 2013.
Margaret gave the girls an inspiring talk on how she had started out, and what it took to be successful.
“Work hard, do the best you can, don’t have babies too young and find the right man!” Margaret told the girls.
She said she was very pleased to read the winning essays, which were about goal setting, and had been very impressed with the essay from the winner, Senamile Mhlongo who had a clear, defined vision of where she wanted to be in the future.
Margaret, who took on the task of promoting the Girls With Dignity project throughout South Africa when she won the Business Woman of the Year Award (Entrepreneur) in 2012, introduced Sue Barnes who designed and manufactures the packs of panty’s and pads.
The concept was born when Sue discovered that a large percentage of school girls around the country do not attend school when they are menstruating. She has made a pack of pads that are washable and last for five years. Hirsch’s sponsored a pack for each girl at the school so that they wouldn’t ever have to miss a day of school!
