Uganda's Makerere University technologists invent papyrus-based sanitary protection
A project that is making affordable
sanitary pads from locally available materials is keeping young girls
from poor families in school all month long as well as generating local
employment for many women, men and girls in Uganda’s capital city,
Kampala. The Makapads, which sell much more cheaply than imported
sanitary pads used by better-off women and girls during menstruation,
were developed by Dr. Moses Kizza Musaazi of Makerere University’s
Faculty of Technology in 2003-4, with funding support from the
Rockefeller Foundation.
Research done in 2002 showed that many girls did
not attend school when they were menstruating because they could not
afford to buy commercially-made sanitary pads and 90% of the urban poor
were improvising with unhealthy materials such as banana fibers, grass,
leaves, old newspapers, and pieces of cloth that did not provide
reliable protection. Dr. Musaazi, a specialist in appropriate technology
and a senior lecturer in Makerere University's department of electrical
engineering, set out to make simple, safe, affordable sanitary pads
that would keep girls in school. Earlier he had designed an incinerator
that burns sanitary pads and other solid waste.
The sanitary pads (trademarked Makapads) are the
first to be made from 99% local materials with the main raw material
being papyrus reeds, cut from the vast, abundant swamps and riverbanks
all over Uganda. After the papyrus is cut, the green cover is peeled off
and the white stem is crushed using a rubber hammer. The material is
then dried under the sun and sent for paper processing. Dried papyrus is
mixed with water and waste paper or paper cut-offs from printing
presses. The mixture of pounded paper and crushed papyrus is put in a
rectangular box with a sheave for drying. After the mixture has dried,
it is then taken for softening and smoothening in a softening machine.
All tools used in the process are locally made or fabricated.
The softened material is then trimmed into pads of 5
cm by 20 cm using a paper cutter and sealed into non-woven packing
materials, bought from shops around town. The pads are sealed in packs
of three and exposed to ultraviolet light to kill off any bacteria. The
pads, three to eight times more absorbent than any on the market, have
been approved by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.
Apart from producing safe and cheap sanitary pads,
other project achievements include development of simple cottage
machines which are locally manufactured and that use more than 95% local
materials. It has so far provided employment and skills development
opportunities to women, girls and men, working at different Makapads
sub-processes.
