BY BETELHEM BEDLU
Mickal Mamo is the founder of Adey Reusable Sanitary Pads Company. She is one of the women who came up with innovative solutions to curb challenges regarding affordability and accessibility of sanitary pads faced by girls and women both in rural and urban areas.
Born and raised in Addis Ababa, she has earned her first degree in Business Administration. Prior to engaging in manufacturing reusable pads, she has been serving in various national and international business organizations at different levels.
In 2017, she again joined another business which was producing children apparel. But, once she found out that most girls in rural school miss out on class every month because they cannot access affordable sanitary pads to use during their menstrual cycles and similar challenges were faced by school girls who are from low income families in the urban areas, she started making reusable sanitary pads.
Before it got the name ‘Adey’ about one and half year ago, the company has been running for over three years manufacturing reusable sanitary pads. Currently, Adey Reusable Sanitary Pads Company is closely working with organizations such as ‘I care’ and ‘Jegenit’ to address the pressing challenges faced by school girls in terms of sanitary pads at times of menstruation.
The Ethiopian Herald has stayed with Mickal Mamo to go over her career and the overall activities of the company. Enjoy reading.
Tell us about your career journey and how you come up with the idea of making reusable sanitary pads?
Frankly speaking, I have never thought of making sanitary pads though I was engaged in making kids apparel. Given the fact that children wear are usually made from selected cotton materials with high quality, many people used to ask me to produce sanitary pads since the pads need as much high quality materials as children’s wear needed.
As I think about the impact that it could make to the society, I started assessing the situation in my neighborhood ‘Legetafo’ where my company was located as well as the schools in the area. What we found was really heart-breaking. Through our assessment, which took us over three months, we learnt that school girls had been missing out more than four to five school days because of their period.
Taking that as an initial point, we started manufacturing reusable sanitary pads. Once we have started manufacturing, we accidentally found out that there were displaced people in the area. Thus, we decided to provide them with the sanitary pads. Taking baby steps as well as advancing the products based on customer’s feedback, we are here today.
When did you establish Adey Reusable Sanitary Pads and what are the core values of your company?
Here at Adey’s Sanitary Pads, we are committed to ensure that menstruation could never be an obstacle for women, needless to mention that accessibility and comfort are equally our important values. Though creating access to customers where the problem is aggravating is essential, we also strive to meet our customer with healthy and quality sanitary pads.
In what ways that the sanitary pads you are producing is different from other similar products?
First and foremost, the fact that I use a material that is designed to make kids clothes would make it different since it is high quality cotton and it keeps users from irritation that may occur during using other sanitary pads.
Secondly, we use over 12 materials to manufacture the product which basically gives it comfort, safety and leak proof cotton; and it could be used for 8 hours without discomfort. Moreover, the absence of polisher (coloring materials) would also give a great point regarding health issues.
What are the major challenges that you encountered so far and what lessons did you learn from the process?
The natural and manmade disasters that happened in the country have been bottleneck as we could not be able to address certain areas in the ten states. The fact that raw materials are getting too expensive especially after the outbreak of the pandemic is challenging. Let alone the aforementioned problems, but the high taxation that the government puts on the raw materials by itself is problematic.
Our company is engaged in activities such as advocacy. Thus, we were tied up with lobbying the government to make ‘tax free period’ and remove taxation imposed on either or reusable or disposable sanitary pads.
Coming to the lesson I took from the process, I say that learning is a daily routine in this business. As a person who was brought up in the city, I used to think that the problem related to sanitary pads accessibility was limited to rural areas and thought that the numbers were exaggerated, however; the reality was beyond that. I was amazed to learn that the challenge is equally existed in the cities.
Not only I learnt that the challenge is still surfaced even in urban areas where actually the focus is entirely given to remote areas, but I have also come to realize that girls from low income families in urban areas are also being challenged by the affordability of sanitary pads.
More importantly, I came to understand that so long as menstrual poverty is existed; curbing the challenges that most girls and women are facing is unthinkable. Whenever we think about girls/women empowerment, it is vital to take in to account that the menstrual poverty is a major challenge that needs to be addressed timely.
Do you think the society is fully aware about the challenges that most girls/women go through regarding menstruation and its impacts?
As a society, we are lagging way behind not only in understanding the impact it put on girls/women in various aspects; but also on debunking the taboo and misconception associated with menstruation.
However, we are committed to promoting awareness creation activities mostly for various high schools. We believe that there has been a great progress in breaking the taboo as we offered all inclusive trainings.
Through the training we provide on our pilot projects on schools, not only the girls are getting brave to ask for sanitary pads but the boys are being more understanding and supportive during that time of the month.
What is your take on the movement of making pads tax free; and what do you suggest?
I believe the government needs to consider that by making tax free period, it alleviates its own burden. It is to mean that most girls in Ethiopia could not access sanitary pads and there are also girls who know nothing about menstruation and sanitary pads.
In this regard, through creating enabling environment such as allowing tax exemption for manufactures of both reusable and disposable sanitary pads, it can curb the challenge and bring about sustainable sanitary products for women and lessen their burden.
Moreover, just like it provides school uniform, learning materials and feed students, government needs to take in to account that sanitary products are also necessity for girls and due attention should be given.
As we understand that joint effort is vital, we are also doing our level best to curb the challenge in collaborating with institutions such as Ministry of Women and Social Affairs, Addis Ababa Women Bureau and other initiatives such as ‘I care and Jegenit’.
What are your best accomplishments so far?
As parts of our activities that are carried out in partnership with our stakeholders, we were able to reach out to more than 31 thousand girls and women. The training we provided in concert with ‘I care and Jegenit’ for over 12 model schools, also includes teachers (gender issue), legal experts, women low income and internally displaced women.
What messages would you like to share with our readers?
Menstruation is not luxury, it is necessity. The tax that is posed on importing raw materials for reusable sanitary pads including disposable pads, are creating more gaps in addressing the accessibility problem as it affects its affordability. Thus, attention should be given and the government needs to be understanding and discharge its responsibilities.
The Ethiopian Herald June 23/2022
