Edu Talk: Period poverty and designing eco-friendly sanitary pads is the talk by Mary Nyaruai Mureithi is an activist and entrepreneur driven by the harsh realities of period poverty, where girls are forced to exchange sex for pads, use unsafe alternatives, or suffer health issues from poor-quality products. To address this issue Mary designed a better solution. Through Nyungu Afrika, she pioneers a circular economy model that transforms agricultural waste, like pineapple leaves and maize husks, into a patent-pending, biodegradable, tree-free pulp for eco-friendly sanitary pads. Her innovation tackles both period poverty and the harmful impact of imported disposable pads on health and the environment. In 2021 she won the What Design Can Do No Waste Challenge.