By transforming agricultural waste, Kenyan helps to fight 'period poverty'

Millions of women and girls around the world, especially in Africa, are affected by "period poverty", which is described by the United Nations as the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene and waste management.

For many girls across Africa, having their period means staying home from school, exposure to negative social stigma, and the risk of significant health issues — all because they don't have access to safe sanitary products.

But then Nyungu Afrika, a Kenyan social and environmental impact startup founded by Mary Nyaruai in 2020, came into the picture.

Nyaruai said that she was inspired to combat period poverty after hearing stories of young girls resorting to exchanging sanitary pads for sex. Her tipping point came after hearing of a 14-year-old girl who committed suicide after being shamed for staining her dress because she did not have a sanitary pad.

"I spent more than two years researching and mobilizing sanitary pad drives in different counties and realized the devastating effects of period poverty for women and girls. As a result, I teamed up with a material scientist and textile engineer to create an affordable alternative that could deliver on comfort and absorption," Nyaruai said.

This marked the beginning of the journey to create Oasis sanitary pads, which are made from agricultural waste from pineapples and maize husks. Nyaruai said the disposable pads are 80 percent biodegradable without compromising the health of users or the environment.

"There has been no innovation in the sanitary pads arena; it has been typically the same products. We are cutting millions of trees to make sanitary pads and this does not make sense. That is why I started asking myself how I can be part of the solution, and that is where my journey as an inventor began," she said.

Nyaruai was raised in Thika, a town that is considered to be the home of Kenyan pineapples due to its vast pineapple plantations. She saw huge potential in using agricultural waste to create her products after realizing the waste was underutilized or discarded.

"Maize is a staple in Africa and the husks are abundant. I normally go and collect the agricultural waste from the market, including pineapple leaves which I collect from the farms" Nyaruai said, adding that when the two are combined, the result is a sustainable product that is soft, comfortable and absorbent.

Major challenge

One major challenge that she faced in starting her venture was how to manufacture the pads without previous experience.

"The raw material used to make pads is cellulose, which mostly comes from trees. I thought to myself that if it is cellulose that we need, then we should start to profile other plants for it," Nyaruai said.

She started with sisal, which grew around her neighborhood, but that didn't work. She also tried aloe vera and papyrus reeds, but realized that they, too, did not give her the desired result.

Then she partnered with a scholar from the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute who helped her reach a breakthrough — combining pineapple fiber with maize husks.

Sanitary pads in Kenya cost an average of $2 each, but Nyaruai said that at one-fourth of that price, poor women in villages and slums can afford safe menstruation using her pads. So far, her company is still involved in small-scale production of the pads, most of which she donates during demonstrations.

"I currently produce the pads at our farm in Thika, but I hope to start large-scale production of the menstrual health products as soon as I get enough funds from donors or investors to expand our production capacity," Nyaruai said.

She also has not yet set up an elaborate supply chain and said she is recruiting vendors who she intends to work with once production picks up.

Women's health first

"Our goal is to pay it forward and use freely available natural resources to be good to nature. This is through a combination of innovation, brilliant product design and international best practices that put women's health first, while eradicating period poverty and promoting gender equality and environmental sustainability," Nyaruai said.

Though her products are only available in parts of Kenya, she hopes that her company will grow bigger and her innovation can help women across the whole country and possibly elsewhere in Africa with their health and well-being.

"Period poverty is a global crisis, but because Africa has a very large population of women who are marginalized and underserved, this is where period poverty really (affects) our women. This is a makeshift, small industry, so it is possible to be replicated in very many areas across Africa," Nyaruai said.

As her business venture expands, she hopes to work with authorities to enable the micro franchising of sanitary pad production to women's self-help groups, small entrepreneurs, schools and local nongovernmental organizations, and also work with them in sales and distribution of the pads to create employment.