Turning Trash Into Triumph: Ibadan Entrepreneurs Combat Period Poverty With PET For PAD
By Femi Ojo
Period poverty, a complex issue encompassing lack of access to menstrual products, hygiene facilities, and education, disproportionately affects millions in Nigeria, particularly secondary school girls.
This menstrual cycle becomes a crisis when it affects the daily routine of a girl child or women. According to data from https://www.worldvision.org.uk/about/blogs/global-state-of-period-poverty/, 1.2 billion women globally have been documented to be impaired by this phenomenon yearly. However, the affordability of this material remains the root cause of the crisis in Nigeria.
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2020 report, at least 82 Million Nigerians , representing 40 percent of the nation’s population live below N600 daily, and in extreme poverty, ironically, the cost of a sanitary pad at the moment ranges between N700 and N4,500 , a stark disparity in the purchasing power for families whose daily revenue falls within the figure or below it.
In Oyo state , a significant portion of girls miss school during their menstrual period,with estimates suggesting that around 1 in 10 girls experience absenteeism due to menstruation. Meanwhile, this crisis has been reported to attract some avoidable health risks, stigmatization and in rare situations depression, a mental health challenge.
However, in Ibadan, Oyo State, two young entrepreneurs, Halimat Olaniyan and Victor Oyejide are tackling this challenge with an innovative and sustainable solution: PET for PAD.
Their initiative, an exchange program, allows girls in low-income communities to collect PET bottle waste in exchange for sanitary pads. This dual-pronged approach addresses both environmental concerns and menstrual hygiene.
The idea stemmed from a monthly outreach to Saint Louis Grammar School, a beneficiary school in Ibadan.
Victor Oyejide explained, “Girls from low-income backgrounds particularly face challenges regarding their menstrual health and hygiene, culminating in period poverty. Many girls are unable to actively advocate for their health and wellbeing.”
The PET for PAD Initiative is a partnership between AFAY Health, a youth-led organization focusing on menstrual health, and Recycledge, a recycling and waste management organization. “The initiative started as a partnership on the International Day of the Girl Child, October 12, 2023 between AFAY Health and Recycledge and has now transitioned into a monthly commitment between AFAY Health and Victor Oyejide (Co-founder, Recycledge),” Oyejide said.
The program’s design incorporates a “two-face approach.” First, it fosters environmental conservation by collecting PET bottles, a non-degradable material harmful to the environment. On the other hand, it provides essential menstrual products. Oyejide emphasized, “the initiative has a two face approach, the first aims to change the narrative around environmental conservation among the youths by collecting pet bottles a non degradable material that poses great danger to the environment, hazardous to human, marine and the soil, in exchange for menstrual pad.”
Moreover, Halimat added that the initiative has a multi-pronged approach, “the approach of the project is a multi-pronged one; We do not only educate them on menstrual hygiene and health, we also give them sanitary pads and teach them how to take care of their environment. Similarly, we took it a step ahead to teach the girls how to make reusable pads because we realized that the disposable pads, sometimes they don’t know how to dispose of them and this is also causing another environmental problem.”
The impact is tangible. On October 30, 2024, the initiative distributed 1,000 pads with support from the Christina Omosigho Foundation and the Commissioner for Environment, who pledged an additional 1,000 pads.They also commissioned a receptacle, a collection bin, and a “pink health station” with pads and a suggestion box at Saint Louis Grammar School Mokola Ibadan.Just last December, the initiator published a year-long achievement of the initiative, tagged 2023–2024 impact report.The duo disclosed that the intervention has yielded profound impacts, transforming lives and communities in meaningful ways adding that they have been able to achieve the SDGs 3, 4, 5,and 13.
Additionally, Oyejide added that Every month since October 2023, a minimum of one pack of sanitary PAD is donated to the Saint Louis Grammar School, the pilot beneficiary of PAD BANK. He noted that more than 320 students have been direct beneficiaries and seven waste collection baskets have been donated to the school.A visit to Saint Louis Grammar School five months post-launch of the initiative revealed significant positive changes.
The Vice Principal Academics in charge of students affairs, Mrs. Christiana Adeniran detailed how the initiative has redefined and abolished the feeling most of the students have about their menstrual cycle.She noted a surge in student confidence, reduced worries about blood stains, and increased attention spans in class.
“This PET for PAD program has been helpful to our students, most especially during their menstrual period. Since this initiative has started, there was no fear that their uniform would be stained again. They move freely, there’s nothing like being ashamed of having their periods.
“Even to the extent of, you know, there’s usually menstrual cramps. So, we do educate them whenever they have this, they should not feel ashamed, they should not feel sick. So, it has been a helpful program and we thank God that God is going along with us. It’s a good program.”
Furthermore, “Since the inception of this program, we’ve been enjoying the good aspects of it. Like seeing our students maintaining good hygiene, seeing them being happy during their period.
We no longer see them having this squeezed face or frowning faces again in class. We don’t even know that they are on. Because they knew that whenever their period comes around, during the school period, they quickly rush to the person in charge, collect the PAD and we are all happy, we are good.”she added.
Students are also fulfilling their environmental obligations, bringing in PET bottles. While there have been occasional dips in the collection, Adeniran explained, “as you can see the receptacle is full to the brim, Yes, the vibe is still there. But the only thing is that the class activities don’t allow us much to have that competition this time. But very soon, when we notice that there is a kind of reduction in the bottles, that’s why we use our initiatives to… Ginger them. Yes, to ginger them, to ask those that are on punishment to come with their pets from home.”she explained .
The School Health Prefect, Adeola Kudoz. JS3 student of Saint Louis Grammar School , Mokola Ibadan, highlighted the initiative’s impact on her perception of menstruation, school attendance, and morale. “The project Pet for PAD has been nice and the students, when they need PAD, they come for it. It makes them feel at home there. Like, it gives them a rest of mind that even if they are on, there is a PAD that they can use. They are not, and I’m not also ashamed of it.
While speaking further on her knowledge of menstrual hygiene, she said “Menstruation is not shameful. So, it makes the students comfortable. Before, some students do stay back at home, maybe because of the pain and everything, but since the Pet for Pad started my classmates do come to school, because even when it starts in school, there’s always a PAD in school for them to use.
“I’m very happy because students will be like… Even if they are on, there is a PAD in school and they will be… They are not ashamed,they will be free ,they will come to school, they will not miss class.”
Another student added, “The PET for PAD project has been very beneficial for everybody, especially me. It allows students to know more about the usefulness of a pad. Before this project started, most people didn’t know the usefulness of a pad. When they brought this project to our school, people better understood the usefulness of the pad.
It actually gives us a sense of being at home. Before they brought this project, people were always ashamed of their period. Whenever they were on their period, they were always ashamed. But now that pad is here, they can just go to meet the Health Prefect. She will give them their pad and they will do whatever they want to do.”
The project has also enhanced their environmental awareness: “Like I said earlier, it has allowed us to know more about the usefulness of pad, we have also been able to educate more and more people about the dangers of throwing bottles anyhow. So, instead of throwing them away anyhow, we can just pack them together and bring them to school.”
Despite the positive impacts of the PET for PAD initiative, launched a year ago, its scope is currently limited. It has only been implemented at Saint Louis Grammar School in Mokola, Ibadan, one of the 969 public secondary schools in Oyo State. Considering this, the success achieved at Saint Louis Grammar School could be seen as a small step in addressing the widespread issue of period poverty in Oyo State and plastic pollution.
Mr. Ekundayo Solomon, an environmental and climate advocate and project coordinator of ConserveOgunRiver, commended the PET for PAD solution. However, he expressed concern that such innovative ideas might not achieve their full potential without government policies to ensure their sustainability.
He stressed that until the Nigerian government implements policies to subsidize the cost of sanitary products, similar to initiatives in countries like South Africa where menstrual products are provided to girls and women, akin to the free distribution of condoms at medical centers, effectively tackling period poverty in Nigeria will remain challenging.
Finally, initiatives like PET for PAD require substantial funding to thrive. Given that the market price for a ton of waste PET bottles ranges from 25,000 to 30,000 Naira, the initiators’ ability to expand beyond their current reach is constrained. The project’s funding relies primarily on the sales of collected PET bottles and fundraising efforts from friends and family which is limited.
By Femi Ojo
