Limpopo-Born Mashela Mokgabudi recalls not having sanitary care products as a girl going though puberty. But this has since become the driving force that led her to find a solution not just for herself but many girls growing up in Africa.
Mokgabudi, who was raised by domestic worker parents, is a trained physiotherapist and also holds a PhD in pharmokinetics from Wits University. She has since become a social impact entrepreneur whose business, GentiShe, recently won the 2019 Engen Pitch and Polish entrepreneurial competition. GentiShe manufactures and distributes recyclable menstrual cups, specifically designed for African women.
In a telephonic interview with Fin24, Mokgabudi said that getting her period was one of the "most challenging" times as a young girl."Given my background, that my parents were both domestic workers, it was very difficult for them to put money aside for sanitary care products.
"Like all the many girls in South Africa, I also faced a similar dilemma - to either choose to stay at home [away from school] when I am on my period, or to use anything I can get my hands on," she tells Fin24.
"With that kind of experience - it was such a daunting experience - I told myself that I am going to change this, I am going to end this history of poverty," Mokgabudi recalls.
Not knowing how she would end period poverty, Mokgabudi went on to graduate from Wits University. Twenty years into running a private practice in pharmokinetics, she decided to go into business.
It was on a business networking trip to India in 2010, arranged through an entrepreneurial programme run and funded by the Department of Trade Industry (dti), she discovered the menstrual cup. Mokgabudi said that she had interacted with three Indian businesses in pharmaceuticals with the aim to partner with one of them. One of the businesses had displayed a menstrual cup among its products, which piqued her interest.
"I took interest particularly in the menstrual cup … this particular product caught my eye. It was something that I was not familiar with - I actually wanted to find out what it was," Mokgabudi says.
The entrepreneur asked if she could get a sample and returned to South Africa where she did more research on it and even trialed it herself.
Mokgabudi discovered that menstrual cups had been around since 1932 and were used by women during the war and were prevalent in developed countries, she found no record of it being widely used in Africa. "That on its own is what basically inspired me to want to do something different," she says.
Designed for African women
Mokgabudi ordered 23 different cups from international suppliers and used them over a period of two years. She found that all the brands had one thing in common – they leaked.
At first, she thought she was not using it right, but later figured there is a scientific reason for the leaks. "The cups were leaking because the rims were too soft. On insertion of the cup, it is supposed to pop open, to firmly hold itself against the vaginal wall, so that it does not leak. If it does not pop open completely, it will leak," she says. The reason the cup wasn't popping open completely was because of the difference in pelvic muscles of African women.
"I had to redesign the cup," Mokgabudi says.She trialed the new design on herself, and her late daughter. The cup comes in two sizes - for girls or women who have not yet given birth, and another one for women who have given birth.By 2012, Mokgabudi had registered her business and had approached the dti once again to assist her to find a company that would make the cup. The manufacturing of the cup was outsourced to a company in China, as she did not have the machinery to make it.In the meantime, Mokgabudi approached the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to raise funding so that she could eventually produce the cups locally.The cup is made of medical-grade silicon, used for medical devices such as catheters, drip bags and masks. It is recyclable and environmentally friendly, according to Mokgabudi. The lifespan of the cup is five years - and it can be cleaned with water. The retail price is R200.Mokgabudi has 10 sales representatives working across all nine provinces, and also employs an administrator.A long roadBut getting to this point has not been easy.Mokgabudi struggled at first to show the IDC the commercial value of her product, as she is a social entrepreneur.She had envisioned that her business would require corporate sponsors to support the distribution of cups to girls in school.