Alex Rose-Innes
A young Kenyan entrepreneur embarked on a project which among certain cultures, is still regarded as shameful for women to talk about.
Paul Okari was only 19 when he realised how poverty negatively impacted young women to afford commercial sanitary products. This led to many girls having to stay home and miss school, which in turn caused negative long-term ripples for their economic well-being.
Safi Pads were started with a loan from his parents and today, thousands of young women in rural areas of western Kenya, rural Uganda and south Sudan are benefitting from his vision for re-usable sanitary pads.
The re-sable sanitary towels, which also had lessened the waste footprint of commercially available products, are made from locally available materials which are washable and totally hygienic and cost half of the price of well-known commercial products.
His organisation, Impact Africa Industries, sells sanitary towel kits, not only to empower poor young girls and women, but to ultimately support their continued education. As his visionary enterprise was noted across the globe, other non-profit organisations donated thousands of dollars to support his business and increase production.
His understanding of female problems started when, as a student at Nairobi’s University, he volunteered to teach at an all girls’ school in a small town in Kenya. Noticing that the students repeatedly missed classes and upon hearing about their monthly struggles, Okari used the $1500 loan from his parents to change their lives.
Now employing more than 30 local men and women at his production facility, more than one million re-usable sanitary towels had been manufactured and sold across rural Kenya and Ugandan. Impact Africa Industries was also a finalist for the pan-African Anzisha Prize, which with sponsorship from the Mastercard Foundation, rewards outstanding young African entrepreneurs of which Okari had without a doubt, proved himself to be a worthy prize winner.
Okari can be contacted on barclayokari@gmail.com
