From making 10 pieces of pads for girls in IDP camp, we have become an intl brand making pads-Tabitha Arenson-Abimiku

For me, it was the drive to solve a problem. Also, I went through period poverty, where I had to use an alternative, like a rag. So, going to the IDP camp in 2017 and meeting girls, I could relate because I was there before. Seeing their desperation for sanitary pads, I knew it was not a joke. It was then that Boko Haram started, so for a girl from Borno to ask me for a pad, I knew it was a need. I did not have a pad then because we just went to the IDP camp like any other person to give out gifts. So, I promised to bring a pad for her the next day. When I did, I saw how the other girls came around to ask if they could also have one. So, my friends and I decided to include sanitary pads in our donations, but since it was self-funding, we were not able to raise funds every month, so we didn’t show up. So, when we could go after some months, they would say, aunty we did not see you last month and some of us had thrown the rags we used away. So, every day I would be thinking of the solution to this.

I was on Amazon online to buy an item, and I saw reusable pads, so I said, this was possible. I got materials from Wuse Market, then got a disposable pad. I used that to trace the pad and sewed it with by hand, using needle and thread. We made ten and took to them. They were so happy. We did not have the perfect pads, but we knew we had what was capable of changing the lives of the girls. They were happy because they felt they could keep it for themselves. It was a game changer.

The next thing I wanted was validation. That was when I heard about the Tony Elumelu Foundation giving grants to young entrepreneurs. I did not know about it until the last day, so I submitted the night it was closing. I came second on the list of those who got it in 2019. I got 5000 dollars. For me, that was the validation I needed to know if it was worth venturing into. So with that, we got the machines we needed and started producing on a small scale. With this, the vision was becoming clearer. We had more clarity and saw possibilities.

I started looking out for more opportunities, and the next one I saw was HERconomy formally AGS Tribe founded by Ife Durosinmmi Etti.They were also giving 5000 dollars grant to women entrepreneurs, so I applied. TEF had given me the experience on how to pitch. Out of the 200 people that applied, it was 12 of us that got to the finals which took place in Lagos while I was in Abuja. I remember then, my baby was barely a year, and I had to go for this. I came first and won another 5000 dollars. As first place winner, I had the opportunity for investment, which came with a ripple effect. One of the judges, Mrs Thelma Ekiyo, after listening to me pitch, said she wanted me to pitch on her platform as well. So we connected, and I pitched again on Sme.ng. This time around, it was 10,000 dollars. I competed with someone from Sierra Leone, Ghana and the US. Before I finished, the organiser said I had won 10,000 dollars. The relationship with the judge did not stop there; she nominated me for an award at Silicon Valley in the USA. Out of 200 entrepreneurs in Africa, I was among the eleven selected. We were just two from Nigeria, Flutterwave and I. We had travelled to California for that award. There was an investment that came with this opportunity.

The experience I got at the incubation hub at the Tony Elumelu Foundation helped me a lot, because when you get the TEF grant, they don’t just give you the money; there was six months of incubation and mentoring that came with it. There you would be guided on how to understand your business, customer, value proposition, its uniqueness, market strategy, and business model. That experience gave me leverage. After this, I was better prepared, and that helped me with future opportunities. I can’t count these successes without God. I could literally see the finger of God all the way.

Again, once you are solving a genuine problem, you will always have opportunities. The issue of period poverty is really systemic. It is something that affects the lives of girls. You see girls missing three to four days of school every month, and besides that, they struggle with recurrent infection every month, as they rely on improvised solutions, dirty rags, newspapers, banana leaves and all manner of things I have seen personally in communities that I have gone to. I tell people this problem is real, and you can imagine if you have almost 500 women menstruating every day in a community. So, there is always going to be a need for the use of sanitary pads.

There are days I feel like packing my bags and going away. As I speak, we ordered some materials for production for over two weeks, and we got a call that the truck had an accident. So, beyond the glamour of a thriving business and the impact we are making, we go through challenges like this.

The challenge of electricity is there, but just last year, through the same Mrs Thalma Ekiyo I spoke of earlier ( she has been very strategic to my growth) I got to pitch for another grant for clean energy, and we won 10 million naira in 2025. So with that, we were able to go completely off-grid. With that, it helps us reduce the cost of production and also improve the turnaround time, so you don’t have to wait for light to start production. I am so excited that from one opportunity, many more have come up. Also,we got a 700 dollars grant from Mrs Oluyinka Oso (Mrs Thelmas friend) for a project for Adolescent girls with special needs who have been neglected. So next week,we are launching Blooming Together in Abuja.We started by making 5 pieces of pad but now we have made more than 500,000 pieces. Now we produce for international brands. We have also been NAFDAC certified for over five years.

What gives me more joy is that these girls call us and say, ‘Aunty, thank you so much.’ They can call us because our numbers are on the pads. So, even when people buy and give them, they also call to tell us thank you. Some say it has saved them from pad-for-sex. Girls do a lot of things because they want to take care of themselves. Yet this is something natural. So, we are giving dignity to women. The idea came in 2017, but we started in 2018.

How will these girls cope when there is no water in some of their communities?

One thing with Virtuous Pads is that we are very careful in making every part of the pad. We are careful not to make the pad another chore. There is so much that goes into the design, because we know that for every woman, her desire is not to get stained or feel wet. So we ensure that our product responds to this need. The product must go through this test before they are used. Even after producing, they still go through UV light where they are sterilized before they are packaged. Once you drop the soiled pads in water, 80% of the blood would be out of the water, so you throw it out.

We advise girls that once you’re about to take your bath, just get a little bowl of water, place the soiled pad into the water, and once you’re done bathing, you can squeeze it out, and 80% will be out. So the little water you have, add your detergent or your soap and wash it. And they always ask you, how do I know that my pad is clean, when you no longer see the water is red? We ensure that the fabric is carefully selected, so that it dries very fast, and then it’s also breathable, pure cotton, so when you wear it, you don’t feel damp. The pads are also stain free.

Today, is World Menstrual Hygiene Day. What message do you have for everyone as a Menstrual Health and Hygiene advocate?

The World Menstrual Hygiene Day is actually a day when the world gets to celebrate and raise awareness about period poverty and period equity. Today, the world comes together to dedicate this day just to raise awareness about period poverty, period equity, and also ending stigma around menstruation. We all know that period poverty is a reality where girls don’t have access to affordable menstrual products, water, education, and safe spaces where they can change. So the day is dedicated to raise awareness around period poverty, around period equity, and also ending period stigma for menstruation around the world. And for this year, the theme is ‘Together for a Period-Friendly World.’ And the mission is simple, just ensuring that those who menstruate have access to menstrual products, to clean sanitation facilities, menstrual health education, and also healthcare support.

A lot of challenges around period pain has been neglected for so long. I remember being invited to a school and a girl told me how she was given a drip every month during her period. But menstruation is a natural biological process, so something that is natural should not be that painful. Some people are dealing with secondary pain, but they always say it’s period pain. There’s a difference between primary pain and secondary pain. The pain that you should accept or accommodate is a little bit of discomfort. It should not be so much that you can’t go to school or you can’t do anything. Please, if you are going through such, you need to seek medical attention because there may be underlying conditions like endometriosis and PCOS [Polycystic ovary syndrome]. It can show up, but because of neglect, people keep carrying it until it becomes an infertility issue. Imagine if we’re able to solve some of these issues earlier enough.

I’m excited that this is coming on time because we are launching a programme for mothers and daughters, and what we did was to collect period stories. And about 80% of the stories that we collected are the same. I didn’t know. Some said, ‘I thought I was dying,’ and my mother said, ‘I should be careful with boys.’ So you discover that the primary person who’s supposed to share this information is also not equipped and is not educating her daughter. Not because they don’t care, but because they don’t know how to start. They don’t know what to say. So, there are myths and misconceptions we need to speak against. The World Menstrual Health Day highlights these myths and misconceptions and seeks to abolish them. But you cannot do that without replacing it with a better alternative. So we have Blooming Together, which is going to be launched next week in Abuja. We would have done it today on the 28th of May, but because of the Sallah holiday. And it’s a package for mothers, so that mothers will guide mothers on how to start the conversation. I tell people, especially mothers, that we need to be proactive, not reactive. Most of us feel when period start is when I should start talking to my daughter. Start instead when you’re speaking to her about puberty, because puberty starts as early as eight with breast buds. In short, the period is the last stage of puberty. But because it’s the one that we can visibly see, we feel the other ones are not important.

So at eight, breast buds, body hair, and the shape of the body change before the period, which is like the hallmark of puberty. But mothers don’t know; they keep waiting until that period before they start speaking.

There’s a systemic or infrastructural gap. Whatever the government is doing, they should have a girl-centred approach. For example, some toilets are female-friendly, but you see schools designing toilets that don’t really consider girls, even though there are girls in the school. So if you have girls in the school, then you should not just build toilets anyhow. It should be tailored to the needs of girls. So, to the government, the private sector and even policymakers, we advocate for them to prioritise political will towards good menstrual health and hygiene. Sometimes the government don’t really know that these things are really happening in the community, so advocacy is very good.

In what other ways do you give back to society?

We have the impact side of our business. We remind ourselves that we started the business for those who do not have. Now that we have evolved into a business, we always remember those who cannot afford. Girls Dignity Foundation is the social responsibility side of our business. We have been privileged to receive grants from some well-wishers. We were supposed to have a product launch today, being World Menstrual Health Day, but because of the Sallah break, we shifted it to next week.

Organisations partner with us by buying from us, and then we go with them to communities to teach women and girls about menstrual health and hygiene. The last partnership we did was with Safety for Every Girl. They asked us to teach the girls how to make pads for themselves, and we gladly did. Because there are communities you can’t always go to because of the terrain, you teach them a skill and how to improvise. We did two days of training, and in two weeks we will go back for their graduation. We look forward to setting up a dignity hub in their secondary school. We did a Train the Trainers course, so at the hub, they will also train other girls. We trained five girls who in turn, will train 10 more.

How many schools have you gone to create this enlightenment?

We have gone to Gbagalape, GSS Karu, City College, GSS Jabi, Kuchigoro, Kilmajaji and Life Camp in the Federal Capital Territory. We have also gone to some schools and communities in Nasarawa State. These we did directly, apart from what we do with partners.

My own project is called Spark her. It’s my own mentoring initiative. A lot of people want to do ‘Pad-a- girl’, but after that, what happens? So, we enlighten some young girls on menstrual health hygiene, who also enlighten their peers and give them pads.

What is your current staff strength?

We have 10 full-time staff. When we have orders, we bring in artisans. So we have eight consistent artisans.

What is your vision for the next five years?

I look forward to us not just producing pads, but becoming a research hub where we take data about the menstrual health of women and girls and translate this data into information that can help influence policy making and implementation, even in the health sector. We look forward to Virtuous Pad becoming a voice that speaks about menstruation as something beyond girls, but a public health concern. Something that affects half of the country’s population (women) should be treated as a public health concern.