NPO embarks on road trip to distribute reusable pads
Schools from Cape to Komani will benefit
Asocial enterprise, established by Cape Town-based nonprofit organisation The Umtshayelo Foundation, is planning to embark on a road trip from Cape Town to Komani and deliver 10,000 reusable sanitary pads to schools along the way.
Enterprise co-founder Stephanie Lamour said it had been founded in 2018 in response to the need to provide a sustainable solution for period poverty.
“Our goal is to raise R2m for transport, manufacturing and menstrual health education,” Lamour said.
“For two years, we’ve heard pleas from schools and seen the heartbreaking effects of period poverty. We are dependent on the generosity of sponsorship, whether individuals or corporations.”
The mission to provide reusable sanitary pads to schoolgirls in the Eastern Cape will see the Komani team setting off from Cape Town in October via the N2, and returning along the N1, delivering packs to 20 schools along the way.
The enterprise’s fieldwork in impoverished communities had revealed the dire the need for menstrual education, care products and support, Lamour said.
The foundation then embarked on finding a sustainable solution for “what can only be called a feminine dignity crisis”.
“Our product is designed to be healthy, free from harmful chemicals, cost-effective and environmentally friendly,” she said, adding it was comfortable and used in the same way as a disposable pad.
She said the enterprise distributed the sustainable products in two ways.
“First, the product kits are provided to school girls living in poverty.
“Pads are also sold to working women, who choose reusable pads as a more economical and environmentally-friendly solution,” she said. The enterprise, through its production and distribution efforts, empowers previously unemployed women economically.
Lamour said: “All service providers receive training and skills development to
equip them to become part of our innovative social enterprise and work towards their own economic sustainability.
“Our vision is first to liberate women by freeing them from the dignity crisis they face when left without sanitary protection.
“We then go further, to empower women through education and skills development, and finally we help women to become financially self-sustainable through economic innovation.”