WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

 

Cultivating a New Industry

in Blog  by connie lewin

Smallholder farming plays an integral role in Rwanda’s economic development, and women contribute up to 70% of agricultural labor. Despite women’s major role in farming, they have significantly limited access to financing, technologies, credit, and education. SHE is working to bridge that gender gap with our reliance on local materials, including our local sourcing of banana fiber as the absorbent core of our go! pads.

SHE’s reliance on local sourced of our banana fiber enables farmers to receive additional income from the leftover and renewable banana fiber that remains after a banana tree is fully harvested. Local sourcing of banana fiber also stabilizes farmers’ income fluctuation that happens during the dry season and for the Umunezero co-op, contributes more than 33% of their annual income.

Our recent visit to the Umunezero co-op gives you an behind-the-scenes look at how banana fiber is one of many natural resources used to fuel Rwanda’s economic growth.

The power of word of mouth marketing: Girls are spreading the news about go! pads after first trial use.

Making go! pads sticky in consumers’ mind

in Blog  by connie lewin

Flora Ufitinema profile photo_square

 

by Flora Ufitinema, Marketing and Research Associate, Rwanda

 

We had our first major go! presentation and sales week in August at the 7th Annual Eastern Province Expo in Ngoma. We both presented our go! pads to the business community while also having our pads available for purchase for local consumers! We had a lot of foot traffic thanks to a recent feature of our Production Staff Leader Marie Louise Umulisa in Ni Nyampinga magazine, a national magazine produced by Girl Effect Rwanda. This was really amazing and represented how important this magazine will be in our future efforts to inform girls about go! pads.

We also enjoyed explaining the process of constructing our go! pads with banana tree fibers. People really responded well to the go! pads, especially the bold colors of our brand. The girls and women were most attracted to our product because of how absorbent and inexpensive it is compared to imported pads.

We also connected with local kiosks owners who were also interested in stocking go! pads in their stores. One kiosk owner bought a few go! pads to put her in store, and later that week, she brought other local kiosks owners to purchase and stock go! pads in their shops too.

Another girl who received our go! pads while at the Peace Corps camp in the Eastern Province, came to purchase her own pack of go! pads and brought her friends with her to check out our pads too. She mentioned how go! pads are very absorbent and comfortable. Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool for brand awareness, and we’re excited that the word on the street is good to go!

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We’re just getting started with sales and are looking for customers in Rwanda, so please reach out to us at supportshe@sheinnovates.com to get some go! pads in your hands today.

Ngoma team with 3S Award in 2015

Sustainability is more than a buzzword with the 3S Awards

in Blog  by connie lewin

This September, the Global Sourcing Council met in the United Nations headquarters to present the GSC 3S Awards. The GSC, and its partnership with the UN Global Compact, strives for equitable economic distribution within vulnerable populations through sustainable business practices. The 3S Award is based on the 3 pillars – Sustainable, Socially Responsible, Sourcing practices for global businesses.

3S Award with go! pads at Ngoma production siteWe are pleased to win the 2015 3S Award in the category of ‘Women Engagement.’ This award recognizes an organization that has taken great strides in empowering women that are part of a global supply chain in their local community. Specifically, it is awarded to an organization that embodies the 3S mission statement.

Founder and CEO Elizabeth Scharpf sees the 3S Awards as a greater acknowledgement of our commitment to sustainability. “Sustainability should be more than a meaningless buzzword. And GSC 3SAwards is reminding us of what it truly is to be sustainable. Our partners and team at Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) are honored to help exemplify this and be a leader that can inspire others.”