Kgoshigadi is a social enterprise that seeks to positively impact the lives of women and girls throughout Africa.
We do this through the setting up of Kgoshigadi mini-factories where local unemployed women are employed to manufacture & sell Nandi Pads: biodegradable, disposable and affordable sanitary pads.
About Us
Anecdotal evidence suggests that in South Africa, 3 out of 10 girls miss a week of school every month, totalling 150 weeks during their school careers - due to not being able to afford menstruation management products such as sanitary pads when they have their periods. This results in young girls dropping out of school altogether, as they simply cannot catch up their schoolwork.
The situation is prevalent across the whole of Africa:
UNICEF estimates that over 100 million school girls miss school for the same reason every month.
We launched Kgoshigadi in 2012 to address the issue of menstruation-related absenteeism in girls from low-income families in the Soshanguvhe township of South Africa. Initially, we collected donations of sanitary pads from friends, family, community members and corporate sponsors, and donated these to various local schools and charities.
With our experience of the needs of women in the communities we have worked with, we transformed our operations into a social enterprise in order to deliver a more sustainable solution.
In 2016, we implemented our social franchising solution...
...Our business-in-a-box solution is anchored in an all-empowering revenue generation model with the benefit of positive socio-economic and environmental impact.
What We Do
At Kgoshigadi, we believe there is an all-empowering solution to the realities that women and girls face. We have identified a scalable and sustainable solution to the challenge of the high-cost of access to safe and hygienic sanitary products.
Our mission is to transform current sanitary pad collection initiatives into profitable business opportunities through the sales of our social franchise mini-factories that provide economic empowerment and eco-friendly, affordable sanitary products to women in low income communities.
A single Kgoshigadi mini-factory employs 5 women full time, with an additional 15-20 women acting as distribution agents. Up to 5 000 women and girls in the surrounding communities of a Kgoshigadi mini-factory can supplied with an affordable and eco-friendly sanitary product.
Click here to find out how to purchase a mini factory where you can immediately employ a minimum of 20 women.
As part of the franchise agreement, Kgoshigadi provides our employees with sanitary pad manufacturing machinery, raw materials, business and production skills training, marketing and brand support.
The average woman creates between 125kg-150kg of feminine product waste over her lifetime; normally this causes serious environmental degradation, as normal pads are not biodegradable.
Our innovative production process and machinery can produce 40,000 biodegradable pads per month, in each mini-factory we set up.
Our pads are made using an innovative combination of natural fibres and agricultural waste. This combination is converted into hygienic raw material; and thus, guarantees the production of affordable and safe feminine hygiene products - that ALL women can afford.
Each pack of sanitary pads is made using the highest quality processes and standards in a sanitary manufacturing environment.
Click here to express interest in supporting our initiative and promote local manufacturing and a green-economy with an environmentally friendly sanitary pad product made for women by women.
We believe healthy womanhood and wellness begins with informed choices. We prioritise consumer education, as well as information and wellness programmes that will not only break the taboos surrounding menstruation, but also build trust and sustained well-being in women and girls across Africa.
Our women’s health information programmes are created with the expert input and experience of qualified medical healthcare professionals.
Click here to invite us to your school or community group to get the conversation going and sample some of our products.
Meet The Team
A social anthropologist by training, a digital evangelist by choice and a social entrepreneur by passion, Jovana manages to combine her three major life passions in Kgoshigadi.
With a Masters of Management in Entrepreneurship from Wits Business School, and over six years of experience in the tech-for-social-impact space - Kgoshigadi allows her to live her dream of positively and sustainably impacting the lives of women and girls across the African continent.
Simphiwe's goal is to contribute to skills development and building sustainable economies that redefine the realities of Africa. Part of her vision for Kgoshigadi is to push the boundaries for market access, business innovation and multi-sector collaborations as the business expands.
In her previous roles, Simphiwe has leveraged her innovative thinking and energy to grow the impact enterprise development, leadership development and business management.
Born in Soshanguve, Tebogo describes herself as a social entrepreneur that is passionate about educating women. She attained her diploma in public relations from Varsity College in in 2011 and is currently doing her advanced diploma in brand innovation at the Vega School of Brand.
Tebogo also sits on the Medical Research Council of South Africa’s Community Advisory Board as an advisor for alcohol abuse in informal settlements.
Support Kgoshigadi
Get involved and help us scale our model and as a result positively impact the lives of women and girls throughout Africa.
Why? The average woman creates between 125kg-150kg of feminine product waste during the course her lifetime; this results serious environmental degradation as commercially available sanitary pads are not biodegradable.
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