Letter from Chief Instigating Officer
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2014 has been a year of proving that our tenacity, our ingenuity, and our savvy approach of debunking taboos will pay off in huge (and small) ways. SHE has transformed from an audacious vision idea of turning banana fiber into menstrual pads into a fully operational production site providing affordable pads to the girls who need them. We also scored two major wins to help us expand our reach beyond Rwanda – a U.S. patent AND an R&D partnership with a major consumer goods company. We couldn’t have done it without you – check out what you made possible in 2014.
Elizabeth Scharpf
Founder and Chief Instigating Officer
The SHE Team’s Most Memorable Moments, Emoji-Style
Elizabeth, Founder and Chief Instigating Officer
Having a seemingly wacky idea of putting banana fiber in a blender and have a patent issued for the process years later!
CeCe, COO, Global
Highlight: Running with my collleague Dany and a group of curious Ngoma students one morning. Dany and I were truly inspired by them.
Yvonne, Head of Business Operations, Rwanda
My #1 highlight of 2014 was joining the SHE team and moving to Kigali!
Dany, Production Manager, Rwanda
When I produced and assembled our first full pack of our go! pads. It was an amazing moment and I realized the rewards of hard work!
Flora, Marketing Associate, Rwanda
I was so inspired by the SHE Club students from the Duha school that toured our production site. They were so proud to help us with the design of our pad and their contributions to building a Rwandan company.
Nadia, Health and Hygiene Manager, Rwanda
Launching our formal teacher’s training of MHM with 52 teachers from the Kayonza district! I have been waiting for this moment for a long time and the teachers’ excitement was awesome!
Sylvere, Business Development Manager, Rwanda
Swimming in the Atlantic Ocean near Dublin after representing SHE at the global conference One Young World. It was my first time swimming in water less than 28 degrees Celsius!
Connie Lewin, Director, Marketing and Strategic Partnerships
Witnessing the full circle completion of our production site in Ngoma.
Our Supporters
Plus our generous individual donors – we couldn’t do it without you!
Meet SHE Investor: Lara Cely
How did you first get involved with SHE?
One of my colleagues at work invited me to a SHE cocktail party! I had read the Nicholas Kristof article, and wanted to learn more about this social enterprise with this fascinating back story (blending banana leaves!). My friends and I like to support women’s health organizations, and when my colleague received the party invitation to hear more about SHE, we were totally on board.
Kicking It Up A Notch
In the spirit of our favorite TV chef Emeril, SHE’s taking it to the next level in 2015:
- Making and selling 503,000 pads (in packs of 10) for 9,000 Rwandan girls by year-end
- Reducing our production costs by 40% through continued R&D and technical improvements
- Creating and distributing branded girls’ menstrual hygiene booklets for national adoption
- Monitoring and evaluation of the impact of pad distribution and health education
- Product development and licensing partnerships
- Sales, sales, sales!
- Sharing our expertise globally
Ready to make 2015 bigger and better? Click here to give in support of sustainable progress for girls and their communities in Rwanda.