Starter Kit. Idea 449 of 500. Cluster 23
Menstrual-product manufacturing at a price a schoolgirl can afford, which keeps her in school
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home, and the reasons are practical, not attitude.
The first step
Buy the cheapest pads on sale in one district town, cost the materials to make a comparable product by hand, and work out both prices per packet. Then ask a school principal or the teacher in charge of welfare how many girls miss days each month, and offer a trial supply at your price. The proof is a school or parents' group that orders a first term's supply.
- Who pays first
- A school, parents' group or welfare society that buys in bulk so girls have a product they can afford every month.
- What leaves today
- A girl who misses school every month loses the education the country pays for; an affordable local product keeps her in class and the spending local.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask whether sanitary pads sold to the public must meet a standard they set.
- National Medicines Regulatory Authority. Ask whether sanitary products need to be registered with them before sale.
Check before you spend
Confirm the standard and any registration for making and selling pads, the hygiene of the room where they are made, and how waste is disposed of.
Find out these three numbers
- What do the cheapest pads cost per packet in town now?
- What do the materials for one packet cost you?
- How many girls in one school miss days each month?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.