New sanitary pad manufacturing plant set to improve the lives of 50,000 female Ugandans

Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Up to 50,000 Ugandan lives will be significantly improved after the Ugandan Red Cross Society partnered with a UK charitable foundation to build a manufacturing plant for re-usable sanitary pads.

Thanks to significant grant funding from the Randal Charitable Foundation the plant in Namakwa, Mukono district of Uganda. It will also create employment opportunities for over 200 vulnerable girls and women who will be trained to make and market the pads.

Once fully established the plant will manufacture 200,000 re-usable pads per year, which is equivalent to 50,000 4-pad packs. Around 20 percent of the pads will be given to 10,000 vulnerable girls in-school free of charge. The remaining 80 percent will be commercialised to 40,000 girls and women in the wider community at a subsidised price, which will ensure the long-term sustainability of the manufacturing facility.

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL, founder and chair of Trustees of the Randal Charitable Foundation said in a press release that, “Our mission is to directly save and significantly improve the lives of the most vulnerable in society in the UK and globally. This project is so beneficial to the community because without access to high quality sanitary pads and toilets, or washrooms for changing, many girls and women are not able to go far from their homes.”

OBE added: “The consequence of this is that they often cannot attend school, and in many cases become trapped in their homes unable to earn a living to support their families. We are delighted with our partnership with the Ugandan Red Cross Society because the manufacturing facility will have the dual benefits of ensuring girls are able to stay in school to gain a good education, and in many cases a future free of extreme poverty. It will also deliver sustainable skilled employment to the women and girls involved in the production and sale of the pads.”

The grant funding will support the setting up of the manufacturing facility to produce re-usable sanitary pads and the training and up-skilling of selected girls and women to make them. It will then fund capacity building to involve more girls and women in specific skills, such as record keeping and marketing, as well as support supervision and monitoring.

After acquiring the required production skills, each female trainee is targeted to produce 50 reusable pads per day, which equates to 1,000 per year. Once the first group of 20 trainees have mastered the skills to produce the reusable pads, they will then recruit another group of 20 to expand their labour force.

The project is part of a collaboration between the Uganda Red Cross Society and the Ministry of Education & Sports and partners, which in 2019 launched a countrywide initiative named Keep a Girl in School. The main aim of this project is to improve Menstrual Health Management among Primary and Secondary School going adolescents in vulnerable communities.

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