Brazilian university student Rafaella de Bona Gonçalves developed biodegradable banana fiber tampons for homeless women. The absorbent is sustainable and helps those in need.
She created it in 2019 while participating in a course focused on finding solutions to existing global social problems. The program required each participant to select one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and develop a solution to achieve that goal.
Gonçalves, a product design student at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), said:
I decided to choose the first one, which is the eradication of poverty, to end poverty everywhere and in all ways.
There are all different types of poverty, so she focused on one, and she chose the homeless population.
She continued:
It was then that I came across the problems of women on the street. They have different needs [from men]; for example, they get pregnant on the streets, suffer sexual abuse, and menstruate. This was a shock to me because I, as a woman, who menstruates every month, had never stopped to think about how they go through this period.
There are 13 million people on the hunger and poverty lines in Brazil. How could they have money for sanitary napkins if they can’t even afford food?
There are two terms used to describe lack of access to personal hygiene products related to menstruation: ‘Period poverty’ (used when describing lack due to financial constraints) and menstrual precariousness (lack in general).
Menstrual precariousness is something that affects people worldwide. When she started researching the situation, she discovered that homeless women have to improvise tampons most of the time.
She said:
They end up using a piece of fabric, a piece of cardboard and plastic bags.
Gonçalves also realized that biodegradable absorbent panties or a collector cup were not plausible options. Homeless women don’t usually have access to clean water or a bathroom, so there’s no way for them to sanitize such products.
She continued:
Many of them also don’t have underwear, so it couldn’t be a pad.
The tampon Gonçalves designed – called ‘Maria’ – adapts to the conditions of a homeless woman. It is hygienic, practical, disposable, and universal. It’s also good for the planet because it’s biodegradable.
Maria is made of banana fiber and comes in the form of a roll, like toilet paper. To form a tampon, the woman simply unrolls a segment, detaches it, and rolls it up. She can customize it to various sizes to suit her menstrual flow needs.
The student was inspired by the Oscar-winning film ‘Absorbing the Taboo’ and a video of a woman on the street. She explained:
The idea came from a video I saw on the internet. In it, a woman on the street showed how to make a tampon from an external one. She took the cotton part out of the regular pad, rolled it up, and turned it into a tampon.
Gonçalves made Maria to be distributed by the government. She even met with Mayor Rafael Greca (DEM) and asked the municipality to adopt universal access to menstruation products policy. She suggested that the intimate and absorbing ‘Maria’ would significantly reduce menstrual precariousness in Brazil.
Her invention earned her a distinguished award – the 2019 German “iF Design Talent Award.” Maria can have a worldwide impact in solving period poverty. She was the only Brazilian to win the award that year.
She said:
Receiving the news of being one of the winners was incredible, especially with a social project that brings up a problem that is often overlooked.
Having access to hygiene products shouldn’t be a privilege; it should be a right for all women.
Another young Brazilian to win an award related to the United Nations is biotechnologist Anna-Luisa Besarra (21), founder of Aqualuz. She also tackled a poverty issue but in a different way. She developed a cistern that disinfects rainwater using the sun to provide people with clean water.
