The Senegal mobile health foundation will launch reusable sanitary napkins “made in Senegal” “which will give more freedom of movement to women during menstruation”, announced Friday in Dakar, its president, Shara Rosen.
“Health-life pads encourage the freedom of women during menstruation and at the same time offer products that are better for the female body,” explained Ms. Shara during the presentation of the project to the press and partners.
According to Ms. Rosen, reusable sanitary napkins “made in Senegal” give women who are menstruating freedom of movement. In addition, she continued, they are “environmental because they are reusable”.
These towels can last up to two years and production will begin in a week with Senegalese seamstresses, Ms. Rosen said.
“We are going to start with 50 to 100 kits. These are simple napkins to make. And apart from the hygienic aspect, they will help create jobs locally,” explained Shara Rosen.
She stressed that the foundation will provide women’s cooperatives with kits containing all the materials necessary to make a set of towels which will cost a modest price.
“The long-term objective, she indicated, is to have funds to recruit midwives who will go to the villages to help pregnant women with prenatal visits, to be screened for diabetes, ‘hypertension and anemia’.
According to the Senegal Mobile Health Foundation in sub-Saharan Africa, one in ten girls misses 25% of their school lessons or abandons school completely because of the unavailability of sanitary napkins.
“That is why, through this project we want to provide a more affordable and healthy option to replace the sanitary napkins currently used. We also want to reduce the number of urinary infections caused by the use of unsanitary products,” concluded Shara Rosen.