“We are Femmina Uganda. It is a social venture that is dealing with menstrual hygiene management here in Uganda.”

Carol and Joanitah | Cofounders | Femmina Uganda

Carol: “We want to see an end to ‘period poverty’ and see that every girl and woman here in Uganda can access sanitary material. In particular, we are interested in introducing menstrual cups in Uganda. They are still new to people worldwide despite the fact that they have been in existence since the 1930s. With the United Social Ventures, they helped us develop everything from scratch because we just came with the idea and did not know how to go about it.”

Carol: “Through their mentorship and training – we did an internship with them from June through August – they helped us research more about the problem. We realized, in the communities we wanted to target, they were opting for the reusable sanitary pads because girls and women cannot afford these normal disposables. They are expensive. The menstrual cups we found are cheaper for them because one cup can be used for up to 10 years. By the time they reach menopause, they will have used only 4 menstrual cups from age 13 to 50. Four menstrual cups, in Ugandan shillings, would be 140,000 ($38.11 USD). For the disposable pads, they were using up to 3M Ugandan shillings ($816.61 USD), so if you compare 3M to 140k, there is really a big difference.”

Joanitah: “There are very many people that are trying to do the same thing that United Social Ventures is actually doing, but remember that these people tend to charge some money. With United Social Ventures, you do not pay any single coin to get into that 12 weeks of the internship, and it’s an opportunity to create something that could change the lives of very many people around us. The team leaders are very willing to help young people.”

Carol: “If others help United Social Ventures, in the long run, you are helping the other startups like us. Because if they stopped helping, then where would Femmina Uganda be? Probably nowhere.”

Listen to Carol and Joanitah share their story in their own voices on our Two Coins podcast HERE.