Ethiopia firm takes aim at menstruation taboos

Detailed summary

Ethiopian firm tackles period poverty with reusable sanitary pads and aims to break menstruation taboos. Read more at straitstimes.com.

A seamstress working on a reusable sanitary pad at the Han’s With Care workshop in Addis Ababa.

ADDIS ABABA – In a cramped workshop in the heart of Addis Ababa, seamstresses are busy turning out reusable sanitary pads – a vital resource in Ethiopia, where many girls go without because of the cost and taboos.

In Ethiopia, a religiously conservative country of 130 million people where around 40% live in poverty, menstruation is still often treated as a subject of shame and disposable sanitary pads are luxury items.

Hanan Ahmed, 41, set up her company, Han’s With Care, in 2021 in the hope of tackling what she calls “menstrual shame and period poverty” – something she experienced when she was younger.

“I used to be one of those girls who have a very heavy flow. I would end up staining my clothes and the desk I was sitting at. And because of that, I didn’t come to school for like a week or two, making up excuses,” Hanan said.

After a career in fashion and then aviation, she realised that “some of the period-shaming that happened 20 years ago is still going on now” and decided to leave everything behind to start her own business.

Ethiopia imports all its sanitary pads from abroad, making them unaffordable to the poor. A 2017 study by Johns Hopkins University found that just 28% of Ethiopian women reported having everything they need for their periods.

The result is that young girls miss school, women lose crucial income and many are forced into dangerous alternatives.

In rural areas, they use “bits of mattress or dirty socks”, said Hanan, adding that it causes infections.

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