The Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) is taking a step towards a brighter future for girls and women in Uganda with their innovative factory that aims to revolutionize menstrual hygiene.

This factory will not only improve the lives of 50,000 girls and women by providing access to menstrual hygiene products, but it will also empower them by providing employment and training opportunities.

The funding for this project has come from the Randal Charitable Foundation, UK, with Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL, Founder and Chair of Trustees of the Randal Charitable Foundation, saying, “This project is so beneficial to the community because, without access to high-quality sanitary pads and toilets, or washrooms for changing, many girls and women are not able to go far from their homes. The consequence of this is that they often cannot attend school, and in many cases become trapped in their homes unable to earn a living to support their families.”

The factory will manufacture 200,000 reusable pads per year, which is the equivalent of 50,000 four-pad packs. 20% of these pads will be given to 10,000 vulnerable girls in school for free, while the remaining 80% will be sold to 40,000 girls and women in the wider community at a subsidized price, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the manufacturing facility.

The project will not only provide employment and training opportunities, but it will also impart specific skills such as recordkeeping and marketing, as well as support supervision and monitoring. Each female trainee is targeted to produce 50 reusable pads per day, which equates to 1,000 per year.

Once the first group of 20 trainees has mastered the skills to produce the reusable pads, they will then recruit another group of 20 to expand their labour force.

It’s a sad reality that many girls in Uganda miss school days or other important activities due to lack of access to menstrual hygiene products. This not only affects their education but also their future prospects. The URCS factory aims to change this by providing girls with the necessary menstrual hygiene products to keep them in school.

The URCS factory project is part of a collaboration between the Uganda Red Cross Society and the Ministry of Education and Sports, as well as other partners, which in 2019 launched a countrywide initiative called, ‘Keep a Girl in School’. The main aim of this project is to improve menstrual health management among primary and secondary school-going adolescents in vulnerable communities.