Upper East Region to get reusable sanitary pad factory

Kandiga community in the Kassena-Nankana East District of the Upper East Region will soon be producing reusable sanitary pads.

This initiative is in line with the Green Africa Youth Organization’s (GAYO) policy to support underprivileged school girls in rural areas.

The mini sanitary pad factory which is under construction is situated in the Kurugu area of the Kandiga community and is expected to be completed before the end of 2021.

Co-Founder of GAYO, Desmond Alugnoa explained that women in the region are underprivileged because they do so much work and sometimes forget about certain essential needs such as a sanitary pad which is very important because every woman passes through menstruation every month.

Mr Alugnoa said initially, together with some partners, GAYO raised funds to supply the women with sanitary pads which were not sustainable because one needed to continuously buy and supply them with some.

He added that the decision to start a mini-factory was to make the project sustainable, create jobs where the local women can be employed and also use as much as possible materials from Africa which are durable and sustainable to make the sanitary pads.

Mr Alugnoa said the mini-factory is expected to start operation by the end of the year because currently, the machines that will be used for the production are already in aside the physical structure.

He explained that in the first year of production, most of the women would be learning the process as well as producing around 6,000 sanitary pads every three months with production output expected to increase when the women fully learn the process.

He hinted that the plan is to expand this project to cover other areas in the region but the pilot project is only starting at the Kandiga community.

GAYO is a youth-led, gender balance advocacy group that focuses largely on environmental sustainability and community development

 James Adombire Upper East