Why did you create this innovation?

One in 10 girls in Africa miss school during their periods to avoid the embarrassment of bleeding through their uniforms. Many drop out of school altogether once they begin menstruating. Should our young girls miss 20% of school days or drop out due to a lack of information or sanitary products?
The plain answer is NO!
There’s already a lot standing in their way
Periods shouldn’t be one of them!

How does your innovation work in practice?

Talking about Periods should never be boring. To effectively teach periods to young school girls, we have to use a medium they find much more appealing; Comic books!

PadHer is making it free, fun, easy, and comfortable to teach young African schoolgirls from underserved communities about periods and puberty using comic books.

Our comic book series "Girls Only" tells the story of a 12-year old African schoolgirl Amanda, who just got her first period. The monthly comic series takes us on young Amanda’s journey to better understanding periods and puberty.

Every copy of our free comic book comes with free sanitary pads to help fight against period poverty. PadHer is constantly visiting schools around Africa, distributing our free comic books to young schoolgirls, and engaging them in a one-hour workshop covering key topics related to periods. All for FREE!

At the end of every period workshop, every schoolgirl who participated is given a certification of participation to celebrate her.

How has it been spreading?

Padher has reached 4 schools and 12 underserved communities in Africa, distributed over 1600+ free comic books and 4,875+ free reusable sanitary pads. We have impacted 1,625 young schoolgirls!

Our Hybrid Model
PadHer operates as a non-profit organization and as a social enterprise.
As a non-profit, PadHer provides innovative ways to educate young African schoolgirls in underserved communities on periods and puberty while making sanitary pads free and accessible.

On the other hand, as a social enterprise, PadHer manufactures and sells high-quality, low-cost reusable sanitary pads and comic books. It then uses the profit to help fight period poverty in Africa. Every pad PadHer sells, it donates a free reusable sanitary pad to a young African schoolgirl who can not afford one.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

PadHer visits schools in underserved communities, where it teaches, mentors, and equips young girls to manage their periods effectively. In addition to visiting schools, PadHer is constantly partnering with local NGOs across Africa to bring PadHer to their community. This program is called “Empower Dada”.
If you are a teacher/principal, suggest your school by visiting https://padher.org/suggest/