Toilet tissue brand, Baby Soft, have partnered with SOS non-profit organization, to implement a powerful new initiative, dedicated to restoring dignity, improving hygiene and sustaining safe sanitation in schools across South Africa.
The ‘Janitress Cleaning Programme’ will be implemented in 160 no-fee Government schools and 40 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centers, across all 9 provinces, to address critical challenges in school sanitation.
The Programme is launched on United Nations World Water Day, which is observed annually on 22nd March. It celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.1 billion people, living without access to safe water. It promotes taking action to tackle the global water crisis and as a reminder to all, on how we achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Water and sanitation conditions, in many schools, continue to face significant challenges due to underfunded resources, poor maintenance systems, limited hygiene practices, old infrastructure and governance constraints. The Janitress Cleaning Programme specifically addresses the challenges of operations and maintenance, limited hygiene and behavior change, by professionalising school toilet cleaning.
The goal of the Programme is to strengthen the capacity of janitresses to become skilled workers, by professionalising school toilet cleaning through improved operations and maintenance systems, capacity building training, and effective hygiene practices. Through structured training, behavior change support and guaranteed tools and supplies, the program aims to improve sanitation and hygiene outcomes, while reducing water and sanitation related diseases.
Shelley Humphreys, CEO of SOS NPO, says “Our Janitresses are the unsung heroines of school sanitation. Their daily dedication keeps facilities clean, protects children’s health and ensures learners can stay in school and focus on their education.”
The Programme champions and empowers these everyday heroines, by equipping them with far more than tools – it provides dignity, safety and opportunity. Through the delivery of comprehensive cleaning kits, uniforms, protective gear and specialised training, alongside school awareness initiatives, the Programme is driving lasting change. It is not just improving hygiene standards – it is cultivating a sustainable culture of cleanliness that extends well beyond infrastructure and into the heart of the communities.
Under the banner “Portraitures of Dignity,” the programme will honour real Janitresses through powerful visual storytelling — capturing their contribution alongside learners in clean, safe school facilities. This initiative reinforces a simple but profound belief: cleanliness is dignity, and dignity changes lives.
The need is urgent. One in three children in South Africa avoid using their own school toilets, affecting concentration, health, and confidence. As per the ‘progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000-2024, launched by WHO and UNICEF’, more than 2 billion people globally still lack access to safe sanitation, while 785 million people do not have clean water close to home. Without clean water, safe toilets, and proper hygiene, children fall sick, miss school, and communities struggle to thrive.
Through SOS’ Germbusters education programme, the Janitress initiative will also empower learners with lifelong sanitation habits, through play-based hygiene education — building behavioural change for future generations.
This new programme builds on years of impact.
Since 2018, Baby Soft and partners have constructed 212 school toilets across 15 schools in Limpopo, transforming the lives of more than 8,000 learners and providing clean water to 7 communities. In 2024, the ‘Together’ campaign expanded efforts, to prevent toilet loss in 300 schools, reaching over 101,000 lives.
These achievements lay the foundation for today’s next step: ensuring that facilities are not only built, but protected, maintained, and sustained.
Baby Soft Brand Manager, Siyolise Shinga comments “we lose new toilets every three to five years due to poor maintenance of these facilities. It is therefore important that we equip the cleaners and schools with the necessary training, skills and supplies needed to keep the sanitation facilities clean and safe for learners to use.”
With messages such as “Heroines Championing Cleanliness,” “Daily Dignity,” and “Cleanliness is Happiness,” the movement calls on communities, partners, and society at large to unite behind a shared mission — because safe sanitation is not a privilege, but a basic human right.
As the saying goes, if you want to go far, go together.
BabySoft and SOSNPO invite all stakeholders to join this growing movement — supporting dignity, health, and opportunity for every child and Janitress.
Together, we can make a lasting difference.
