The multi-award winning WildHearts Group is a collection of companies that create global social change. Over the past six years, WildHearts has grown into the largest B2B Social Enterprise in the UK, is a registered B Corp, a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and addresses over 50% of the UN’s Global Goals. To date, the WildHearts Foundation has transformed over 1.5 million lives.

WildHearts Foundation Africa is a non-profit company and a registered Public Benefit Organisation, founded with support from WildHearts Foundation UK and corporate partners, Johnson & Johnson. Our mission is to empower schoolgirls across rural South Africa to stay in school and complete their education.

A key barrier to girls’ education in the developing world is a lack of access to basic menstrual health products. Girls often drop out of school during their periods, missing up to 5 days of school every 3-4 weeks. The implications on their futures are severe. WildHearts is committed to addressing this. To date, we have manufactured and distributed over 50,000 reusable pads to schoolgirls between ages 9-18 from low SEM (Socio-Economic Measure) communities, vulnerable to period poverty. Our reusable sanitary pads are manufactured to the highest South-African compliancy standard SANS 1812:2020.

Distributed in packs of five, our pads are made of five layers of organic cotton which includes an antimicrobial layer for hygiene purposes and an absorbing layer for heavy flow. Pads are distributed to girls in schools in both urban and rural areas alongside an extensive educational program that supports their correct use and maintenance.

The initiative empowers both school girls and local women. All personnel involved, from the Project Management team to the employees in our factory producing the pads, are women, resulting in our phrase, ‘’For women, by women”.

The factory in the province of Mpumalanga, South Africa is our 1st franchise and will play a vital role in scaling the initiative and expanding our impact. With significant in-kind support from Old Mutual Insure that includes coaching, training and technical business support for the co-operative combined with pro-bono support from The Document Warehouse and their customers’ spend, the initiative is set for significant growth in 2021.

You will also discover:

Why this project won the Old Mutual Insure SME partnership of the Year Award and shortlisted for the World Procurement Awards.

How you can use your corporate social investment or enterprise and supplier development programme to support keeping girls in School.

WildHearts Foundation is a Public Benefit Organisation – Find out how your business can support the Foundation’s work directly.

How buying social can help attract customers and future talent whilst demonstrating your company values to current staff.

Exclusive case studies and videos demonstrating how all of these opportunities to engage can transform lives in South African rural areas.

To register your interest in this event, email: michelle.sinclair@wildheartsgroup.com.