ACCELERATE2030

Global Finalist Profile

“Nhanga Trust is a social enterprise whose vision is to revolutionize the Menstrual Health and Hygiene space by empowering underserved women with skills to make washable sanitary pads.“

Nhanga Trust

Zimbabwe

The Problem

72% of rural schoolgirls in Zimbabwe cannot afford sanitary towels forcing them to miss days in school, making ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education utopian. SDG 4. Girls often resort to using cow dung, leaves newspapers, and other unconventional means to manage their flow, this may lead to premature deaths attributed to cervical or ovarian cancer. SDG 3 Root Causes -Gender inequality which promotes all forms of discrimination on issues around menstruation leading to Gender Based Violence of School Girls. SDG 5

The Solution

Their solution is the Washable Pad which lasts up to 5 years ensuring that girls do not miss days of school. Therefore eliminating Gender inequality in accessing education of children in vulnerable situations. SDG 4 To date they have distributed over 20000 washable kits to rural schoolgirls across Zimbabwe ensuring access to reproductive Healthcare services SDG 3. Nhanga Trust include boys in Menstrual Health Education. To date they have trained 100 000 boys and girls. This is vital to shatter stigma and discrimination against girls. SDG 5. What is innovative about their solution is that when we make our pads they use the fabric offcuts to make reusable breastpads & are currently making recycled paper and we intend to make box packaging for the pads.

Chipo Chikomo

Founder & Director

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