Tembisa resident Eva Lethabe (24) was one of five women to graduate from Mimi’s (Swahili for ‘I Am’), Pads and Cents Enterprise Development Programme.

The programme empowers and enables women by equipping them with the necessary entrepreneurial skills giving them the tools to establish market and run their own Mimi business, distributing affordable sanitary pads to girls who would otherwise not afford it, and subsequently drop out of school.

Mimi was established three years ago as the brainchild of Ramona Kasavan, a social entrepreneur and media personality who is strongly outspoken about women empowerment.

She worked as a DJ on both Highveld Stereo and East Coast Radio, and as an Eastern Mosaic presenter.

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As a member of the media, she was shocked to discover the plight of millions of South African girls whose education and futures were endangered by the lack of an everyday commodity most girls are fortunate to take for granted.

Kasavan then established Happy Days, a sanitary towel company, which has subsequently been rebranded Mimi to reflect the company’s philosophy of “I am… a powerful woman.”

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