Pasand

CATEGORY: Health

Pasand

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Pasand offers young women the opportunity to make choices for her own health and dignity by improving access to affordable sanitary protection and feminine health education.

Standings & Awards

42 out of 1313 in Asia
22 out of 284 in Health
41 out of 935 in Design
49 out of 1066 in Blended
116 out of 4003 Overall

19

VOTES

Pasand

Pasand reduces the number of missed school days by providing affordable sanitary pads and health education.

Pasand, a social enterprise that offers girls in India the choice to make decisions about their health by improving access to feminine health education and affordable sanitary products, uses an innovative model that harnesses education and markets to make a difference in gender empowerment.

Pasand sells locally-made, affordable sanitary pads made from natural, regionally available fibers.We aim to change habits at an early age by targeting the 87.5 million schoolgirls in India who currently use traditional, unsanitary methods for absorbing menstrual flow. Our key tool is education, and we deploy it creatively, through product packaging and health curriculums, to change lives and empower young women.

By integrating a culturally-relevant educational curriculum (service) with a product (good) that is affordable and accessible through a trusted source, Pasand’s model is an innovation in emerging market sanitation.

Through partnerships with local NGOs, we have already provided feminine health training materials to men and women in India. We are also in the middle of product development at the Costa Rica Institute of Technology.

We plan to launch our Pilot Program in June 2013. By year five of full operation we aim to have sold 60 million pads, directly reaching 100,000 girls across India; however, through these girls, we hope to indirectly gain access to their sisters, mothers, aunts, and friends, increasing our reach and impacting up to five times our projections. All profits are reinvested in our health education campaign in order to develop the program.

Our ultimate goal is to change habits and reach schoolgirls en masse, giving girls the choice to go to school, maintain their dignity, and lead healthy, fulfilling lives. Period.

Want to learn more? Visit us as www.pasandpads.com and follow us @PasandTeam!

Roadmap to Success Optional (1 - 3 minutes to upload)

Roadmap to Success:

roadmap_to_success.pdf

Sponsors, Investors, and Supporters

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

Pasand partners with schools to sell locally-made, affordable sanitary pads and provide feminine health education. Pads can be bought individually or in a Period Pack, a pack of 10 sanitary pads and a prize. Our pads include educational messages within the packaging. Through integrating health education and affordable pads, we foster customer demand and build networks of support and brand loyalty.

2. Who gains the most?

Girls can miss 5 days of school a month due to inadequate sanitary protection, and 23% of girls in India drop out of school upon menarche. Due to a culture of silence, girls aren’t learning about proper hygiene. This has contributed to 40% of Indian women suffering from gynecological morbidity, including cervical cancer and RTIs. Every pad sold reduces these risks for one schoolgirl and gives them the choice to attend school. Pasand empowers girls, breaking the vicious cycle of inequality.

3. Who pays?

Schoolgirls will purchase the product at school for $.08/pad and receive money from their mothers to do so. Research shows that 85% of married women in India have cash on-hand and significant purchasing power for household goods. Thus, Pasand will focus on mother-daughter education to ensure that mothers see the value in providing their daughters with money for sanitary pads. Our initial investors will provide us with the funding to launch our pilot program and distribute promotional pads.

4. What is your success?

We measure our success in girls reached and pads sold. Every ten pads provides schoolgirls with the opportunity to attend school and improve her life for a month. Every curriculum taught reaches 30 girls and their families. At year one, we will formally launch in 25 schools in rural Odisha, reaching 5,000 girls. By year 5 we will have sold 60 million pads to over 100,000 girls.

5. How will you do it?

Pasand teams with schools to identify a nurse or female teacher who will act as a Pasand "ambassador." In addition to selling pads, ambassadors teach Pasand's feminine health curriculum and serve as female mentors, which is otherwise lacking in their lives. By providing education on the product's packaging and through a culturally-sensitive health curriculum taught in schools, Pasand strives to reduce menstrual taboos. Pasand will also enlist the support of female role models.