Malaika Textiles, is a non-profit organisation registered in 2018 and started operations in 2020. Its key objective is to raise funds and awareness to the ‘Support a Girl Child in Rural Schools in South Africa’ through the Start Her Up Pad Campaign. The company is owned by Tebeni Maseko and is based in Mbombela, Mpumalanga.

A key barrier to girls’ education in the developing world is a lack of access to basic menstrual health products. This results in girls often missing school during their menstrual cycle, missing up to 5 days of school every 3-4 weeks. This accumulates to 60 days out of school per year. The implications on their studies are severe which in turn may affect their future prospects.

In view of this Malaika Textiles is committed to addressing this problem by manufacturing and distributing reusable pads – aptly named Start Her Up Pads - to schoolgirls between ages 9 and 18 from low SEM (Socio Economic Measure) communities, who are vulnerable to ‘period poverty’. 

Although the Start Her Up Pads Campaign is aimed at school girls and young women, the initiative also focuses on empowering women in general through job creation, skills development and financial stability. All personnel involved in the manufacturing, production, packaging, distribution and management of the product are all women which is in line with the campaign’s motto: ‘’For women By Women”.

The factory in Mbombela (Nelspruit) in the province of Mpumalanga, is the first of Malaika Textiles’ franchise facilities and Tebeni believes that it will play a vital role in scaling the initiative and expanding our impact to beyond the province.