BanaPads

Produces comfortable sanitary pads from natural agricultural waste materials.
2013 SEED Africa Award Winner Water, Sanitation & Health (WASH) Kampala, Uganda

BanaPads are sourced and produced locally using readily available banana pseudostem wastes. The enterprise employs a franchise model led by young rural women to manufacture and distribute the pads. The finished products are marketed and sold across the region and profits go towards repaying micro-loans, salaries and eventually revenue. Using a door-to-door distribution model, BanaPads employs young female entrepreneurs known as “Champions", providing them with a complete start-up kit of inventory, training and marketing support.

Eco-Inclusive Impacts
The enterprise aims to reduce absenteeism among schoolgirls in rural and poor communities, create a distribution network of female entrepreneurs and establish sustainable independent micro-businesses.
  • Bringing 3,300 girls aged 10 – 19 in rural areas back to school, thus increasing access to education.
  • Offering training and job opportunities for young women in the production of sanitary pads, sales and collection activities.
  • Creating alternative livelihoods for women to create businesses that benefit the entire community.
  • 130,680 environmentally friendly sanitary pads have been produced.
  • Reducing the 30 million tons of waste that goes to local landfill or garbage dumps by using banana pseudostem wastes and recycled materials.
  • Improving the conservation of the natural world through community environmental education.
  • 26,330 packs already sold to 4,380 girls, generating sales of USD 19,751.
  • Two production centres will operate in the Mpigi District and Rakai, with a production capacity of 526,700 units per shift.
  • 20 full-time jobs have been created by the social enterprise: 10 BanaPads Champions and 10 BanaPads production workers.

Multimedia

Partners

This enterprise is supported through its partnerships with various stakeholders, ranging from national and international organisations, investors, research institutes, suppliers, governmental bodies, NGOs, other social and environmental enterprises and more.

The Global Social Benefit Incubator, a programme developed by the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, assists the enterprise in developing business plans and supporting capacity-building and fundraising.

The Social Entrepreneurship Forum a Swedish based “Social Entrepreneurship Outreach Accelerator” provides funding, in-kind support for capacity-building and connects the enterprise with impact investors.

The Global Fund For Children is a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC, whose mission is to transform the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children by making small grants to innovative community-based organisations.

SEED Library

In the SEED Library you can read case studies and briefs and explore recent news and blog posts related to the enterprise.
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Richard Bbaale
http://www.banapads.org/

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