1. Project Discription

Sanitary pads are basic products used by women and Girls from the onset of puberty; menstrual product waste starts with production. According to UNEP, menstrual hygiene products emit about 15 million tonnes gases during the manufacturing process. Further, women prefer disposable sanitary pads which are classified as single-use plastics taking 500 to 800 years to decompose contributing to more than 20% of total land waste fills negatively impacting the environment by release harmful gases and contaminating rivers

Our project purpose is to develop a biodegradable and reusable sanitary pads made from banana pseudo stem wastes (Banana fiber) and micro franchise Sanitary pad production work with micro entrepreneurs, schools, local NGOs and women self help groups at the bottom of the pyramid in sales and distribution of our proprietary pads. We will train Micro entrepreneurs in business skills and process in accessing our products.  Our mission is to promote economic development by developing solid business model that can be imitated by entrepreneurs at the base of pyramid and at the same time mitigate climate change by encouraging green menstruation.

2. Project Progress

We have produced our first batch of our biodegradable sanitary pads, this was done through this processes:

We Collected banana pseudo stem wastes from farmers in Nakuru county and transported the stems to our factory in Nakuru. We hired third party banana decorticator machine to process the stems to fibers. Then fibers were left to dry in the sun for a week. We trained few women in sanitary pads productions which include fibers sorting, cutting into smaller pieces, pulping, and sewing until the final product (Sanitary Pads).

• Micro-franchising our products in the community

In micro franchising sanitary pad production; we have worked with a few women in production, sales and distribution of our proprietary pads.

We have trained women in our community in sanitary pads production, and educate them on how they can act as micro franchisers in sales of our products 

3. Project plan forward

We plan to engage more micro entrepreneurs, schools and local NGOs based in Nakuru County in sanitary pads micro franchising. We will involve them in sales and distribution of our proprietary sanitary pads.

• Expected Results

By the end of the program, Our sanitary pads will have been distributed and micro-franchised to more than 50 micro entrepreneurs, local Ngos and schools in sales and distribution of our proprietary pads in Nakuru Kenya 

Our mission is to promote economic development by developing solid business model that can be imitate by entrepreneurs at the base of pyramid and at the same time mitigate climate change by encouraging green menstruation.