Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE): The SHE28 Campaign

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE): The SHE28 Campaign

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Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE): The SHE28 Campaign

description
SHE works to ensure that no woman misses out on school, work, or life because they don't have access to affordable menstrual pads.

The Problem

18% of women and girls in Rwanda miss up to 50 days of work or school a year because they can not afford to buy menstrual pads. Pads can cost over a days wages, and can often be difficult to access for women living in rural areas. Quite apart from the personal injustice, and the larger issues of health and dignity, we’re also talking about a potential GDP loss of $215 per woman per year – a total of $115,000,000 in Rwanda. It’s bad business.

The Solution

SHE28 uses local materials and local manufacturing to expand access to affordable menstrual pads. Banana farmers in Rwanda throw away tons of trunk fiber every year. We provide them with equipment and training, so that they can process it and sell it to us. We take it to our community factory to be sanitized, cut, fluffed. Our manufacturing process is U.S. patent approved! Now it’s ready to be made into menstrual pads, wrapped in eye-catching designs, and sold at an affordable price-point to women and to schools, where they can be given to girls who need them. We are debunking myths and taboos about menstruation with our health and hygiene education in schools and in the community. Result? Jobs, education, good health, and dignity. It’s a sustainable system that is already reaching over 20,000 women and girls and can be rolled out anywhere.

Stage of Development

scaling

Organization to Receive Funds

Sustainable Health Services

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