Five St Paul’s University Students, have received world recognition after Creating Eco-friendly Sanitary Towels from Banana Fibres.
This group of innovative students from St Paul’s University has come up with the first worldwide eco-friendly sanitary towels made from banana fibers dubbed ECO-BANA.
By July 23, the group was set to leave for Boston to attend the Global Hultz Prize Acceleration after emerging as one of the best teams from Africa in the Regional Competition held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The students are Lennox Omondi, Kaylie Muthoni Ogola, Brian Ndung’u, Tony Smith, and Dullah Ogutu.
According to the project’s publicist Lucky Oluoch, the students chose to go in that direction because more than 70% of girls and women in Kenya find it difficult to afford sanitary towels.
“Girls find it difficult to access pads” Lucky Oluoch noted.
He further explained that since its raw materials are sourced from the environment, it makes it easier for them to decompose easily once disposed of, unlike normal pads and tampons.
“Another thing that stands out with this innovation is the fact that users do not necessarily have to dispose of them since they can be washed and reused,” he added.
This will be helpful to most school-going girls for it is affordable and manageable.
The five brilliant students are yet to participate in Global Hultz Prize Acceleration in Boston for their innovation.
They have been feted on several occasions and participated in various international events, the most recent being the On Campus Awards at Strathmore University.
“The event accorded the team an opportunity to network with participants from across the globe, learn and unwind,” Oluoch expressed.
The team plans to have the sanitary towels mass-produced once paperwork, certification, and approval from the Ministry of Health are completed.
Statistically, many girls miss school due to a lack of pads as several female students miss school for at least five days every month because they can’t afford sanitary pads.
This is because teens and young women from disadvantaged backgrounds have problems managing their menstruation.
Subscribe to our You Tube channel at Switch TV.
Given that they lack pads, most choose to stay at home during their periods, and some are forced to drop out of school due to the discomfort of using rags as pads, as well as painful cramps.
