Innovation

• Afripads is contributing to the goal number four which is quality education.One out of 10 African schoolgirls skip or drop out of school because of the lack of menstrual product. For school-age girls in Africa, be able to access cost-effective menstrual product can encourage them to stay in school.
  
• Afripads takes a big role in goal number five which is gender equality. By providing pads to them with affordable price and reusability, Afripads are bringing back the freedom for the girls and women in Africa to engage in their daily lives and achieve their dreams.
  
• Afripads has created over 150 job opportunities and they are building a new factory with the size of 2700 sq meter. Their actions can increase Africa’s job opportunities, tax income, and more. This fits goal number eight.
• By offering menstrual pads that are made of high-quality textiles and are reusable, Afripads is ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being which fits Goal number three.
  

Inspiration

"The story began when Sophia Klumpp and Paul Grinvalds went on a trip to Uganda. When Sophia has her period, she found very limited menstrual product with very high price. This basically gave the idea and motive to create the company."

Overall impact

Overall, Afripads has achieved over five hundred thousand dollars revenue and reached to over 1.5 million girls and women as their consumer. With these achievements, they are able to have some potential social impact. 1 out of 10 Africa schoolgirls drop out of school can cause up to 10 billion dollar potential earning lose. As their product encourage girls to stay in school, they are not only improving the education situation but also improving potential earnings. In addition, full-time job opportunities are created in Uganda to improve local's earning further.

Business benefit

Overall, Afripads has achieved over five hundred thousand dollars revenue and reached to over 1.5 million girls and women as their consumer. With these achievements, they are able to expand the business further as they are building a new factory with the size of 2700 sq meter.

Social and environmental benefit

There is a significant issue that many women, particularly young women must face in Uganda one being the fact that a clear majority is “Unable to afford or access proper menstrual products, many girls and women rely on crude, improvised materials like scraps of old clothing, pieces of foam mattress, toilet paper, leaves, and banana fibers to manage their menstruation” this quote from their main website indicates the core problem within Uganda that Afripads set out to solve. Unicef has also shed light upon this issue as schools cannot provide sanitary cleaning facilities, and young women often cannot afford to buy them themselves., which is a huge problem as it affects the level of education in Uganda.

Afripads set out to solve these two core issues holding back the development of the country by not only producing an efficient solution but efficiently running a business that supports, education and allows women in Uganda the opportunity to become better off financially. As 95% of their staff is composed of female workers. Afripads main mission is to “change lives” and “create livelihoods”. They change lives by supplying their convenient and fair priced menstruation pads to help young girls and women overcome difficulties brought to them because of their mensuration. Which enables them to carry on their lives, go to school and work free of worry and with the most comfort possible restoring “the confidence and dignity they deserve”. As previously mentioned they have also helped the country of Uganda through the numerous amount of jobs they have been able to create, they have been able to create more than 150 jobs, allowing people to gain financial independence and through various training programs gain valuable experience, which is slowly increasing the quality, education and previously mentioned experience of Uganda’s workforce. Which leads to an overall benefit towards the country’s development.

Interview

Katy Lindquist, Communication Executive