Sustainable Health Enterprises

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) has been awarded the 2010 Curry Stone Design Prize for development of a locally produced product that enhances women’s dignity. In numerous developing countries, the stigma of menstruation is exacerbated by the lack of adequate, affordable sanitary devices, often keeping girls and women away from school and work for many weeks a year. SHE’s goal is to solve this problem with advocacy and education, by promoting a local business producing a sanitary pad made from local, sustainable materials.

Working with a range of people and organizations in Rwanda for the past two years, SHE has addressed the stigma of menstruation on several fronts. SHE has advocated for more government support for access to women’s sanitary devices and educated Rwandans about basic aspects of women’s health and how they can be improved. SHE has developed a cost-effective prototype of a sanitary pad made from banana tree fibers, and started the organization of a franchise-based micro capital business model to distribute these pads when in regular production.

Elizabeth Scharpf founded SHE following her graduate studies at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School. Scharpf learned about issues limiting women’s access to education and work through a World Bank program she studied in Mozambique along with fellow Harvard students in developing countries, such as Bangladesh. “A huge impetus for me to start SHE was to get away from the charity model of addressing issues in the developing world, she says.

SHE has expanded to include partners working in Rwanda, along with technical assistance or product development from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, North Carolina State’s program in medical fiber technology, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Scharpf describes SHE as a team of diverse people and talents working towards larger ideals to improve opportunity for half the world’s population. She hopes the model in Rwanda can be expanded to other countries. Scharpf describes her idea of success for SHE in Rwanda as the point at which, “I’m driven out of a job.”

Scharpf and SHE have already been recognized on a number of fronts, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology Legatum Seed Grant, inclusion in the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative. Scharpf became Harvard Business School’s first Social Enterprise Fellow, and received the Presidential Innovation Award from the Global Fund for Children.