One in 10 girls in Africa miss school during their periods to avoid the embarrassment of bleeding through their uniforms. Many drop out of school altogether once they begin menstruating. Should young girls miss 20% of school days or drop out due to a lack of information or sanitary products?
The plain answer is NO!
There’s already a lot standing in their way, Periods shouldn’t be one of them!
Talking about Periods should never be boring. To effectively teach periods to young school girls, we have to use a medium they find much more appealing; comic books!
PadHer is making it free, fun, easy, and comfortable to teach young African schoolgirls from underserved communities about periods and puberty using comic books.
Our comic book series "Girls Only" tells the story of a 12-year-old African schoolgirl Amanda, who just got her first period. The monthly comic series takes us on young Amanda’s journey to better understanding periods and puberty.
Every copy of our free comic book comes with free sanitary pads to help fight against period poverty. PadHer is constantly visiting schools around Africa, distributing our free comic books to young schoolgirls, and engaging them in a one-hour workshop covering key topics related to periods. All for FREE!
At the end of every period workshop, every schoolgirl who participated is given a certification of participation to celebrate her.
PadHer has reached 5 schools and 12 underserved communities in Africa and distributed over 2,000+ print comic books and 7,000+ free reusable sanitary pads. We have impacted over 9,000+ young schoolgirls!
Our Hybrid Model
PadHer operates as a non-profit organization and as a social enterprise.
As a non-profit, PadHer provides innovative ways to educate young African schoolgirls in underserved communities on periods and puberty while making sanitary pads free and accessible.
As a social enterprise, PadHer makes and sells the "Girls Only" comic books and eco-friendly, low-cost reusable sanitary pads. It then uses the profit to help fight period poverty in Africa. Every pad PadHer sells, it donates a free reusable sanitary pad to a young African schoolgirl who can't afford one.
PadHer is constantly partnering with local NGOs across Africa and visiting schools in underserved communities, where it teaches, mentors, and equips young girls to manage their periods effectively.
Teachers/principals can suggest their school by visiting https://padher.org/suggest/
Our comic books are also available for free download via https://padher.org/download/
