Florence Kamaitha.
A girl champion, a mentor, and a businesswoman: Florence Kamaitha is the Founder of the Pad Heaven Initiative that brings girls together to help out other girls in need of not only sanitary towels, but also school fees and mentorship. She has supplied products to girls in primary school with the aim of reducing absenteeism due to lack of sanitary towels. Currently, she is working on manufacturing a low cost, high quality, hygienic pad from locally available materials that can be accessible to all school going girls. Knowing the importance of education, Florence has also mentored over 600 girls about reproductive health, sexuality and HIV/AIDS.
Florence has a degree in Marketing and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Mount Kenya University. While dedicated to her studies, she is also a blogger and runs an online magazine, Her Business, which focuses on today’s woman expanding her business and improving her life.
As a YALI Fellow, Florence wants to influence policies about women and girl’s rights in Kenya. She will learn innovative ways of making re-usable sanitary pads and get support for women producing these products in their communities in order to create employment in villages and most importantly, to ensure girls can stay in school.
Youth Village Kenya acknowledge Florence on her impressive efforts to make the education of women a priority. Congratulations Florence!
Credit : U.S Embassy Nairobi and Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
