Our tireless champions of menstrual hygiene

When Glory Adrian Nyengella and Fredy Andrew Mbilinyi decided to participate at DARE to Change Dar es salaam this year, they only had one thing in their minds and that was to fulfill their long term passion of becoming entrepreneurs. But little did they know that their idea would stand out to be the best.

Soon after hearing about the programme offered by Cambridge Development Initiative, they realised it was going to be a great opportunity to make their dreams come true and therefore joined the programme which took them into a serious practical training in enterprenuership.

“We started off as individual participants but later on we were advised to form groups, that’s when we joined hands. We went through a series of intense practical training about entrepreneurship and it was through this that we managed to become one among the groups that got the top recognition,” explains Mbilinyi, a second year student at Ardhi University.

Having received sponsorship from UTT microfinance bank including machines and capital to support them implement their business which was under Waste, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) category didn’t come that easy, it took them a series of trials and errors before they came up with something successful.

“Initially we had an idea of creating liquid manure which is generated from organic wastes however, we came to realise that it was an idea hard to be implemented because it was costly and has a specific time limit to be used. That is when we sat down and decided to come up with another idea which focused more on health issues and Rafiki Pad got our thumbs up,” explains Glory , a third year student from University of Dar es Salaam majoring in Law.

Having in mind the limited access to sanitary products many girls across East African countries are facing made Glory and Adrian come up as a second idea.

“The fact that many girls feel they are forced to skip school while they are menstruating because they don’t have proper sanitary wear is what made us come up with this idea, Rafiki Pads aims to address this issue by manufacturing simple, affordable and reusable sanitary pads made from an absorbent patch and cotton materials to improve women’s comfort and reduce absenteeism,” they said.

Both Glory and Fredy believes that there are lots of opportunities for young men and women to make some difference in their lives and make positive impacts in the society

“Any business idea needs to focus on how it can be used to tackle challenges within a particular society it is going to operate in. As youth we have an opportunity to do so and for that to happen we need to be active and daring to engage in programs such as this one as they give us opportunity to explore our potentials. They need to engage in programmes such as this one because it can surely give them opportunity to meet with stakeholders who can assists them put their ideas into reality,” stated Fredy.

After several rounds of pitches, eight groups of graduates of the DAREnterprisers course made their final presentations to a panel of judges.

The entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to pitch their ideas and grant were to the groups that demonstrated the most socially impactful business concept.

These included founders of Shara, Daniel Wilson Sabuni, Peter AbelyMwaikambo& Alpheus Timotheo Binamungu who pitch their idea under the category in Off-grid energy.

Shara concerns themselves with clean and friendly energy. Not only do they want to ensure the promotion and spread of renewable energy, they also want to fix the problem of unreliable energy production and inconsistent supply to off-grid villages. Through establishing mini grid energy centres in such areas using a hybrid system of solar panels and wind turbines.

Tacode which is founded by NeemaIgogo, Edson Mhenga and Jacob John took also the prizes. Tacode is working to solve the problem of the use of improper energy for cooking by producing a sustainable cooking fuel alternative made from cow dung.

This business model is targeting nomadic communities whose only alternative is cutting down trees.

DARE to Change DAR 2016 brought together industry experts, innovators, students, and many others, who all had passion to use impactful innovation to improve this city. Tanzania Country Director Jonathan Nkungu, said that the challenge has never been about the ideas but finding people with the ideas and being able to implement them and how to build the country.

“Some of the ideas presented are some of the classical example of what is needed for the future and we hope that some of this ideas will be used to solve some of the challenges in existing in our everyday lives,” he said.