Basic sanitation is a human right. It’s what the 6th of the 17 SDGs created by the UN foresees. However, plenty of women face Period Poverty, which consists of the inaccessibility to sanitary pads, bringing irreversible social consequences and a lack of dignity in their lives. Moreover, synthetic pads negatively impact the environment since most of their materials come from non-renewable sources and require tons of liters of water to be manufactured. So, by-products from the South Coast of Brazil were used as raw materials to develop an eco-friendly sanitary pad. The final prototype was able to absorb 645%, while the disposable pads were 582% and it has a cost 2 cents.

The idea came from when Camily was talking with her mother and found out that, when she was younger, she did not even have access to conventional sanitary pads. Since then, Camily felt motivated to look for solutions to Period Poverty, and together with Laura and Flávia, they created Sustainpads.