What if an everyday item could help girls attend school more comfortably—and make a difficult conversation easier to start?
Turning a personal experience into practical action
Hanan Ahmed, founder of Han’s Care in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, knows how embarrassment and lack of access to menstrual products can affect education. Drawing on her own experiences as a student, she founded the business in 2021 to help address menstrual stigma and product affordability.
Her workshop makes washable cotton sanitary pads. According to AFP reporting published in November 2026, around a dozen workers make the products, and the business has capacity to produce up to 1,000 pads per day. This figure describes possible daily production, not a verified count of pads distributed.
A model built around access
Rather than assuming that every family can buy the products at retail prices, Han’s Care works with sponsors, including businesses, which purchase pads to give to girls and women for free. The workshop’s activities also include conversations with students about menstrual health and hygiene.
AFP reported on a distribution at an Addis Ababa school, where a teacher welcomed the initiative and its potential to reduce missed school days. Ahmed acknowledges that barriers remain, especially outside major cities. Her work should not be described as having solved period poverty across Ethiopia.
Why the story matters
The project connects several positive changes: paid work in a local workshop, reusable products that may reduce ongoing expenses, and opportunities for students to ask questions without shame.
Ahmed’s efforts show that social innovation can begin not with a complex invention, but by addressing a problem many people have learned to endure in silence.
Sources: AFP reporting via Africanews, November 9, 2026; additional AFP coverage via IOL. NewsPositive has not conducted its own interview with Ahmed.
Featured image is illustrative stock photography; it does not depict Hanan Ahmed or her workshop.
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