"It damn well shouldn't be the reason they don't get an education."

Trine Angeline Sig is working to get 130 million girls into school – even when they have their period. The solution is called Safepad, and it's her company, Real Relief's, attempt to eradicate "period poverty." Since the invention seven years ago, the Kolding-based company Real Relief ApS has had 10 million high-tech sanitary pads produced and sold to major relief organizations.

 You might think it's a cool invention. And it is. Safepad is a so-called "smart" sanitary pad, where the textile fibers have undergone an antimicrobial treatment, making the fabric positively charged. This means it practically attracts microbes that are negatively charged. The result is a pad that can be used under all conditions, that works even when washed in contaminated water, and that is reusable.

 You might also think, "Impressive sales!" 10 million units are quite a few. But if you ask Trine Angeline Sig, CEO and co-owner of Real Relief, whether it's not a job well done – especially considering that the company consists of a total of 12 permanent employees – four in Denmark and eight at the office in India – the answer is no. And within that no lies part of the explanation of why she does what she does. "A sale of 10 million units is not satisfying as long as we haven't reached everyone. As long as there are millions of girls who can't go to school and women who can't work or move freely when they have their period. And at the same time, I know that we could produce 10 million Safepad per month, so it's not satisfying, and I intend to do something about it," she says.

 "The Humiliating Injustice" Trine Angeline Sig is both extremely provoked and motivated by what is called "period poverty”. "I discovered it for the first time in Kenya many years ago. From the hotel, I could see girls and young women on the beach constantly running into the water. The waiter explained that they were menstruating and couldn't go to school because they couldn't afford menstrual products. Later, some of the girls told me that they had to prostitute themselves, simply sell their bodies, to afford pads. The humiliating injustice was a powerful eye-opener for me," she says. Later, Trine Angeline Sig heard about girls and women in Africa committing suicide out of shame because they had been expelled from school for bleeding through their cloth – and women in Nepal dying from snakebites in remote menstruation huts. "It can't be right that something as natural as menstruating – which half of the world's population experiences for about two months every single year for around 40 years – is so stigmatized. And that, coupled with the lack of access to sanitary pads, cuts off millions of girls and women from getting an education," she says.

"It should not be the lack of reusable hygiene products that determines whether girls and women go to school and eventually become decision-makers who can change the world." - Trine Angeline Sig, CEO and Co-founder, Real Relief

 "I became so much wiser." Trine Angeline Sig's countermove became what she describes as Real Relief's mission: to invent and bring a solution to the market that can save or improve the lives of women in third-world countries. In this case, it's the "smart" pad Safepad, which in 2018 received the Danish Design Award in the category "Daily Life."

 "It should not be the lack of reusable hygiene products that determines whether girls and women go to school and eventually become decision-makers who can change the world. Anything else is just silly, especially when we now know that investing in girls and women can be directly reflected in a country's GDP. And that no countries reach a high level of development until they do so," says Real Relief's CEO. She also mentions that back in 2016, she was confident that her company with Safepad had a really good business on hand in a super interesting market. "The need – and thus the demand – is enormous. Real Relief's capacity can be scaled without problems, so the supply was also in place, and thus the business case. Or so I thought. Since then, I became so much wiser because it has been – and is – very uphill to get funding for menstrual health," says Trine Angeline Sig.