Manufacturing affordable eco-friendly sanitary pads to keep village girls in school and to create jobs for local women
Richard Bbaale
Richard is a social entrepreneur from Uganda that founded BanaPads in 2010. He holds a Master in Business Administration and is also the founder of SOVHEN UGANDA – a Non-Governmental organisation supporting Orphans and Vulnerable children for better health, education and nutrition. During his career he has focussed on the design, manufacture and distribution of affordable health care products through locally sourced materials.
Richard took part in SE Forum’s SE Outreach Accelerator in 2013.
BanaPads
BanaPads manufactures affordable eco-friendly (100% biodegradable) sanitary pads to keep village girls in school and to create jobs for local women. BanaPads has created a simple technology that converts banana pseudo stems, an abundant & free organic waste, into highly absorbent paper using readily available natural and recycled materials. The pads are comfortable and meet international standards. BanaPads are distributed using a micro-consignment model, which provides local women entrepreneurs with a “business in a bag”: a complete start-up kit of inventory, training & marketing support. The local entrepreneurs earn a commission on each sale, returning the margins to BanaPads to repay the inventory loan, and to cover other direct costs.
