S-PADS

Making and providing reusable, biodegradable and affordable sanitary pads from sisal fibers to school going girls in the rural areas.

The specific problem we are trying to solve is lack of affordable sanitary pads for school going girls from poor families in the rural areas. In one Kenyan study 95% of menstruating girls missed 1-3 school days, 70% reported a negative impact on their grades, and over 50% stated falling behind in school due to menstruation (According to World Bank). According to the Ministry of Health for the county government of Kisumu, 98 percent of girls and young women of age between 15 to 35 cannot afford sanitary pads during their menstrual period. One of the factors contributing to this problem is high level of poverty in my community where most families cannot even afford three meals in a day. This makes it even hard to buy the sanitary pads since most of them would prefer buying food with the income they get rather than saving their daughters from period poverty. Secondly, the sanitary pads which are sold in the market and relatively more expensive for people earning below a dollar in the villages. Also the sanitary pads that are available in the market cannot be washed and reused again. Lastly, the government which used to distribute free sanitary pads stopped doing it and this has made it hard for poor girls in my community.

Some of the consequences from this problem include;

1. There is increased teenage pregnancies. Since these girls cannot afford sanitary pads, they use other means to get the pads by sleeping with motorbike riders who take advantage of them and makes them pregnant and also transmit other infections like HIV and AIDS.

2. There is increase in school drop outs. Since these young girls especially orphans who might not have someone to provide them with the sanitary pads, they drop out of school and start doing manual work in order to get money to buy sanitary pads.

3. There is also decrease in performance of these young girls in school. During their menstrual periods, these girls are always absent out of school and this later affects their overall performance in school.

Our solution is a reusable, affordable and biodegradable sanitary pads. These sanitary pads are made from sisal fibers which are harvested from sisal leaves which are locally available raw materials. It requires several steps to make the reusable, biodegradable and affordable sanitary pads. First, the sisal leaves are harvested. This is followed by extraction of sisal fibers from the sisal leaves. The sisal fibers are then converted into pulp. The pulp is then used to make reusable and affordable sanitary pads. The sanitary pads can be washed and used again the consumers. The sanitary pads can be thrown away and it decomposes hence do not pollute the environment. 

It can be done manually using a hand made machine. For commercial purposes it requires machines to extract the fibers from the leaves of sisal and also to convert them to pulp which can then be used to make sanitary pads.

Our target population are school going girls in Muhoroni constituency, unemployed youth and also young women.

The school going girls here lack affordable sanitary pads during their menstrual periods hence they cannot sit comfortably in class this in turn lowers their performance. The sanitary pads donated by government do not reach them and only some few people benefit. Some even sell them yet they are donated for free.

The youths are unemployed and some of them are unskilled. 

This solution will provide affordable sanitary pads to these school going girls directly and hence making them sit comfortably in class and hence boost their performance. For the youth, we shall employ them the production of sanitary pads. This will provide jobs and also equip them with adequate skills.

This venture is made up of five people; three undergraduate students and two professionals;

1. Dhahabu Leticia – Financial and marketing officer and the co-founder of S-PADS. This is a film production and directing student. Her role will be to operate our social media pages and help in conducting marketing for the company.

2. Pride Nyando – Educator and manager. I am the founder and the team lead for S-PADS. I have a wealthy experience in entrepreneurship, management, transformative leadership and also in sisal products. I am studying bachelor of pharmacy

3. Priscilla Kituke - Accountant and finance manager. She is an international business administration student. She has great experience in accounts and finance and this will be essential in fund management.

4.Edwin Alato – Environmental Health officer. His role shall be to advice on matters environment and product safety.

5. Prof. Margee Ensign, the Vice Chancellor of USIU-AFRICA. Her role is mentorship and also offer advice.

When I finished my high school, I went to volunteer in the same high school as a teacher. It is a mixed school. I was a class teacher of one of the classes. One of the things I noted was that there was a time girls used to be absent from school for about a week and then come back later. When I tried to find out, I realized that the reason is because of lack of sanitary pads during their menstrual period. This makes them to be shy and hence not come to school. This eventually led to decline in their performance.

The solution we are providing is providing a new approach to the problem. One of the existing solutions in my community is through the donations by the ministry of education. This is not sustainable due to poor leadership some schools do not even get and those who get get few which are also not enough and sustainable. This is a new approach since we are making our own using our own raw materials. This will reduce over-dependence to donations.

We are expecting it to enable broader positive impacts from others in this space. We can encourage the government to support it by offering subsidies so that we can produce more and cover wider area.

1. One of our impact goals is to reduce the girl-child school drop outs. This shall be done by providing them with affordable sanitary pads hence ensuring that they remain in school during their menstrual periods.

2. Secondly, we are planning to reduce teenage pregnancies, STIs transmissions and also HIV and AIDS transmission. We shall ensure this by providing the young girls with sanitary pads and also to counsel them not to get the sanitary pads from motorbike riders.

3. We are also planning to employ many youths in order to improve their living standard. This we shall ensure by employing them in all the chains of production.

This solution involves biodegradable sisal fibers to make sanitary pads. We are making a new product out of sisal fiber apart from ropes, mats and baskets. It requires a machine that harvests fibers from sisal leaves, turns fibers into pulp and also turning pulp to sanitary pads. 

Sisal is considered something with no proper use in my community and most people normally plant it as fence but this is also dangerous since it forms habitat for dangerous reptiles.

This is still a business idea. We are aiming at reaching out to 50 homesteads and at least one primary school and one secondary school in Muhoroni constituency, Kisumu county in the next one year. In terms of numbers our solution targets at least 200 people; which includes, people who will be employed directly, the parents whose daughters will be able to get sanitary pads and also the girls themselves who shall never be out of school due to lack of affordable sanitary pads.

1. There are lengthy procedures which are followed when one wants to register his/her start up. This is a major challenge especially for people like us who have an idea but are not able to raise that registration fee.

2. Lack of adequate funds especially to buy the machines of which are very expensive and even to pay workers.

3. This is a new idea in the market. It might be very difficult to change the perception of many people who have always maintained that some sanitary pads are itchy.

Since it is still an idea, we are planning to partner with different organizations;

1. We are partnering with Rotaract club of Silicon valley since they are also doing a similar project but the difference is that them, they are donating sanitary pads to schools in Kenya while us we are making the sanitary pads. 

Our key customers are parents of the school going girls and also some of the school going girls in Muhoroni Constituency, Kisumu county. We are providing affordable, reusable and biodegradable sanitary pads.

These sanitary pads are provided by production from the sisal fibers which are extracted from sisal leaves. These products are needed by these girls to ensure they are comfortable in class, boost their performance, minimize being taken advantage of by the motorbike riders. 

We are planning to employ different strategies to bring money to fund our idea;

1. We are applying for competitions and grants in order to win some seed capital to start the idea.

2. We are planning raise capital through partnership where the funder provide fund for the idea and buys some shares in the business.

3. Selling sanitary pads and other sisal products in order to get funds to continue running the venture.