Startup Story
Blandine Umuziranenge is the founder and ceo of Kosmotive, a social enterprise founded in 2014 to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Rwanda and throughout Africa. Early in her career she worked at Rwanda Broadcasting Agency and Contact FM radio. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Innovation Management, a bachelor’s degree in business information and communication technology and an Advanced Diploma in Information Technology. Her twelve years of experience combine Information Technology, Social Entrepreneurship and Circular Business Modelling. Blandine is a multi-award-winner including the Youth Connekt Africa 2019 Girls in Innovation Award and the Invest2Impact Africa 2019 Women's Empowerment Award. Blandine's ambition is paving menstrual freedom for girls and women in Africa.
LoA spoke to the inspirational Blandine Umuziranenge about her vision for her social enterprise and to find out more about what drives her mission each day.
What does your company do?
Kosmotive is a social enterprise founded in 2014 to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Rwanda and throughout Africa and with a workforce of 31 people. Our goals include the provision of access to menstrual, maternal and child health information and products. Through Cosmos Magazine, KosmoHealth App and Helpline, as well as empowering parents and girls through KosmoWearables collections of maternity and nursing wear, and KosmoPads reusable sanitary pads, Kosmotive promotes feminine freedom despite the flow.
Our highlight initiative is making and distributing KosmoPads: eco-friendly, cost-effective, reusable sanitary pads to provide underprivileged girls ability to stay in school the whole year without missing classes during their periods, and for young women and girls working in our factory to not only discuss their challenges about menstruation, but also learn how to make pads. As girls and women break the silence about menstruation and benefit financially from making and selling pads, they come to see their periods as a source of pride and power. With KosmoPads, we are investing in girls’ education, women’s health and the planet; one pad at a time!
Alongside manufacturing KosmoPads, we provide health information for women on our eHealth platform where girls and women can seek important health information they need for their wellbeing, get first aid support in a remote interaction with our health expert, and buy self-care products from our web-shop integrated in our eHealth platform.
We conduct community campaigns for systems change in the education system and communities in Rwanda for menstruation to be normalized and considered as a healthy sign in women’s health and celebrated in the communities.
We create awareness about menstruation to be recognized as healthy and natural by changing the conversation about menstruation and motivating boys to shift from being bullies to being allies. We keep sharing our work to capture and sustain the attention of everyone in a girls orbit to build a durable web of support, working toward substantive social change that will make menstrual stigma history. This will lead to shattering period stigma, girls and women finding their confidence back and being able to optimize their economic activities in the time that they would spend home because of the stigma or lack of menstrual products. We provide a safe space for young women to learn about their menstrual cycles, share their challenges and experiences, and plan together what they can do to turn their periods into something that can exist without shame. We keep sharing our work to capture and sustain the attention of everyone in a girl’s orbit to build a durable web of support, working toward substantive social change that will make menstrual stigma history.
“With KosmoPads, we are investing in girls’ education, women’s health and the planet; one pad at a time!”
“We conduct community campaigns for systems change in the education system and communities in Rwanda for menstruation to be normalized and considered as a healthy sign in women’s health and celebrated in the communities.”
What inspired you to start your company?
Social stigma and cultural taboos about menstruation contribute to girls and women missing school and work in Rwanda. From the 2016 research by Sustainable Health Enterprises, 18% of women and girls in Rwanda miss work or school because they can’t afford to buy menstrual pads. This amounts to a potential GDP loss of $215 per woman every year in our country. The consequences of this hidden topic of women's body and school absence during periods took another level due to the pandemic and their combined impact will result to destroying girls' life-chances by lowering performance, lack of confidence, increasing grade repetition, pregnancy risk and dropout, which will negatively affect women's health and economic growth.
Looking at the alternative solution on the Rwandan market, each disposable pad contains the equivalent of 4 plastic bags. It is estimated that each disposable pad takes between 500-800 years to decompose, and that on an average a woman could use up to 10,000 sanitary pads from menarche to menopause. Over 10 million non-compostable sanitary pads make their way into the sewage system and pollute land and water bodies in Rwanda every month. However most disposable pads, especially those containing superabsorbent polymers, don’t decompose; instead, they break down into small pieces of plastic and contaminate the soil, water and air, eventually entering the food chain.
We strive to end period poverty since 18% of girls and women in Rwanda miss school or work because they can’t afford to buy menstrual hygiene products. This same issue of period poverty affects 1 out of 4 girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa; 128 million girls if we put it in numbers. So, the way we address it matters. If we stop raising our voices about this issue, the number of school dropouts will increase, which will increase pervasive economic inequality.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
KosmoPads is the only cost-effective, super absorbent, eco-friendly menstrual hygiene solution, priced at US$5 and lasting for 2 years. Women in Rwanda typically spend $2-3 per month on menstrual products. KosmoPads are reusable for 2 years, toxin-free, breathable, and comfortable, and are available in convenient places, and represent an incredible 88% savings over the course of their use. They also come with an information platform to educate women and girls about menstrual and reproductive health. We have built a community around our product, which creates a continuous impact. We offer repeat customers new reusable pads at half price when they bring back their old pads at the end of their lifecycle. We recycle them into other needed products to prevent them being improperly disposed of.
Tell us a little about your team:
With our 29 years combined experience in women's health, manufacturing and circular business modeling, and 5 years of being the leading manufacturer of reusable sanitary pads in Rwanda, Kosmotive promotes Feminine Freedom despite the Flow. Blandine Umuziranenge, Rwandan female, is the Founder and CEO of Kosmotive since 2014, improving health. Early in her career she worked at Rwanda Broadcasting Agency and Contact FM radio. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Innovation Management, a bachelor’s degree in business information and communication technology and an Advanced Diploma in Information Technology. Her twelve years of experience combine Information Technology, Photojournalism, Script writing, Publishing, Social Entrepreneurship and Circular Business Modeling. Blandine is an awards winner including the Youth Connekt Africa 2019 Girls in Innovation Award and the Invest2Impact Africa 2019 Women's Empowerment Award.
Opportune Uwacu Tumukunde, Rwandan female, is the Operations and Finance Manager since 2020 handling projects implementation, financial and HR management. She holds a Diploma in Operations Management and a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
Ishimwe K.Jean Nepo, Rwandan male, is the Chief Technology and Supply Chain Manager since 2021 holding a Bachelor's Degree in Business Information Technology.
Akayo Quinto Mediatrice, Rwandan female, is the Sales and Marketing Executive since 2022 managing all our projects mobilization and ensuring sustainable sales. She holds an A’Level Certificate in Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science as well as professional certificates in sales and marketing.
Berthine Uwanyiribambe, Rwandan female, is the Partnerships and Business Development Officer since 2023 building new partnerships, sustaining existing ones and bringing in new business opportunities in Kosmotive. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Healthcare Management with concentration in Global Perspectives.
We have 19 in the production including the Production Manager, 1 Inventory Manager and 1 in IT and Communications. We have 5 sales representatives in all provinces of Rwanda.
“We strive to end period poverty since 18% of girls and women in Rwanda miss school or work because they can’t afford to buy menstrual hygiene products. This same issue of period poverty affects 1 out of 4 girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
With my background in communication and technology in 2014, when I was looking back to what affected me personally in my young age, I founded Kosmotive to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Rwanda. Our aim is to save lives by increasing access to menstrual, maternal and child health information and products, and access to healthcare services to people who currently don't have access to it. I have been affected personally by the issues that Kosmotive work on, which makes me a passionate advocate.
I started Kosmotive in 2014 when I was publishing Cosmos Magazine to improve maternal and child health, in 2016 I launched KosmoHealth App for safe pregnancy and safe birth, in 2017 we started making maternity and nursing wear through Kadablah Collection for empowering parents and enabling breastfeeding, in 2018 we started KosmoPads reusable sanitary pads to contribute in ending period poverty and keeping girls in school, and early 2020 we have combined all our women's products and services in a web shop on our eHealth Platform ( https://kosmotive.rw ) and we are now working to connect this platform to our pads vending machines to be placed in all convenient places where our end users will be accessing both information and sanitary pads on the go in Rwanda.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
Kosmotive estimates that within 5 years our factory will create 230 more decent jobs that will produce 15 million reusable sanitary pads which will improve menstrual health management for 3,750,000 girls and women; thus saving 88% of the money they should spend on disposable pads, equivalent to 158,400,000USD total savings and preventing the pollution from using 1.5 billion disposable pads, which is equivalent to the pollution from 6 billion plastic bags, or 3,600 tons of plastic.
We plan on having operations and strong sales in 4 more countries in Africa and KosmoPads store on 2 global eCommerce platforms and multinational consumer goods companies by 2025. Our vision is to see a world where every girl and every woman has access to reproductive health information and access to sustainable feminine hygiene products.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
What gives me the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur is making a difference in other people's lives.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
My advice to other women looking to start-up is to fall in love with the problem, not in the solution; and to keep a growth mindset throughout their journey. And to share their ideas as much as they can because in sharing you find partners, in sharing you find investors, in sharing you find customers.
Contact or follow Kosmotive:
Email: info@kosmotive.rw
Website: https://kosmotive.rw
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kosmotive
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KosmotiveRwanda
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kosmotiverwanda
Why LoA loves it…
At Lionesses of Africa, we are big supporters of impact-making women entrepreneurs who are addressing the big challenge of ending period poverty and investing in girls’ education and health. Blandine Umuziranenge is playing her part in creating impactful solutions for women and girls, bringing her skills and expertise to the table in order to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Rwanda and throughout Africa. She is an inspiration to all those women entrepreneurs who are driven to make a difference and positively change lives on the African continent. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa