Farhana Sultana, an assistant scientist at icddr,b, has received the grand award for her suggested innovation, which involves building a machine to create jute cellulose-based disposable sanitary pads for long-term menstrual health. For women and girls in Bangladesh, it offers an alternate solution for menstrual health and hygiene. Ms Sultana designed and piloted the jute cellulose-based disposable pad in partnership with Dr Mubarak Ahmed Khan, scientific advisor at Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, according to an icddr,b announcement on its official Facebook page. Jute-Based Sanitary Pad made in Bangladesh Farhana Sultana has been the primary researcher for a number of menstruation management programs. The Islamic Development Bank gave her a $100,000 (Tk 8.4 million) grant to create jute napkins, minimizing the usage of plastics. For a long time, Farhana Sultana and her colleagues have been focusing on menstruation management. The researches have led them to finally propose the idea of jute cellulose-based sanitary pads for women and girls. Read 'Golden fibre' no longer holds glitter for Khulna jute farmers Tishan Mahfuz, a team intern researcher, said they put biometric devices in four schools in Dhaka and Manikganj to find out why female students were missing classes. According to Tishan, the percentage of absences decreased when plans were made to provide sanitary napkins in the school. Who is Farhana Sultana? Bangladeshi scientist Farhana Sultana is currently involved with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene research group at International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Her mission is to reduce the burden of communicable illnesses in Bangladesh by designing, testing, and implementing low-cost and long-term interventions in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors among low-income and high-risk individuals. Read BUILD explores producing paper pulp from whole jute plant

A scientist at International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) has won a grand prize for her proposed innovation in developing a machine to produce jute cellulose-based sanitary pads for sustainable menstrual health. According to a statement posted by icddr,b on its official Facebook page, Farhana Sultana, Assistant Scientist at icddr,b has won the prize at the 4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition on ‘A Healthier Global Community Addressing the Twin Challenges of Pandemic Preparedness and Impact of Climate Change.’ Read UK abolishes 'sexist' tax on women's sanitary products Farhana manually developed and piloted the jute cellulose-based disposable pad in collaboration with Dr Mubarak Ahmed Khan, scientific advisor at Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation. This pad is an alternative solution for menstrual health and hygiene for women and girls in Bangladesh. However, jute cellulose is a new material and currently, there is no such machine available in the country to manufacture such pads which is a barrier to scalability. Read CARE Bangladesh, P&G to distribute sanitary napkins The competition organised by the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), has awarded US$5,000 to Farhana. Moreover, she will be a judge for the 5th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition to be held in 2022. Scientist Farhana will conduct an industrial trial for mass production, develop a business plan, and explore options for further scale-up and waste management with the money won from the award, stated in the icddr,b Facebook post. Read LatAm takes sanitary, economic measures against COVID-19 The industrial trial will also assess the compatibility, compressibility and stretchability of the pad, and conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis with other commercially available disposable sanitary pads, it added.