Students from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, who were on a class trip to Lake Victoria in Kenya, took note of the invasive species of water hyacinth that was choking the Kisumu shoreline. They set out to come up with a way to help rid the land of this unwanted weed while tackling the country's problem of a lack of feminine sanitary protection with one invention: the Jani biodegradable sanitary napkin.
Water hyacinth is a natural fiber that is sometimes seen used as a textile or in papermaking. The students came up with the idea of, instead of just ripping out the water hyacinth, using it to create a sanitary pad for the women of this developing country who normally do not have access to feminine protection.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.