Isabelle Plamondon
Staff Writer

 

“My superpower,” Madhvi Dalal told a group of students on the International Affairs Forum Student Leadership Team (STL) on Oct. 10, “is just to try–to have the courage to try.”

The group of students fell silent for a moment, taking in the quiet confidence behind her words. Dalal wasn’t there to lecture about entrepreneurship or charity; she was there to talk about courage–the kind that led her from a pharmacy in Wales to the classrooms of Kenya, where a conversation about health education sparked a grassroots movement called PadMad.

This group interview, as well as the independent interview with Dalal and the White Pine Press, happened as a result of the efforts of NMC’s International Affairs Forum (IAF), the college’s flagship public-dialogue series on global issues. Since 1994, IAF has brought diplomats, authors, policy experts, and social innovators to northern Michigan to stimulate local engagement with worldwide challenges.

Dalal also spoke at the Oct. 8 screening of Powerful Women and joined the Oct. 11 “Walk to End Period Poverty in Kenya,” where the pads made with PadMad, as well as handcrafted Kenyan Jewelry, were being sold. You can find White Pine Press coverage of the walk on page four. With 71 participants walking and the sales of pads and jewelry, they raised over $7,000—enough to provide reusable pads to more than 700 girls for six years.

When Dalal left her career as a pharmacist in Wales and moved to Kenya, she wasn’t chasing a mission–she was chasing an adventure.
Once in Kenya, she began teaching yoga and dance classes and soon stumbled into menstrual health education after discovering why her students would periodically miss their classes.

In an interview with Right for Education, Dalal recalled learning that many girls were missing school for lack of menstrual products—resorting to “pieces of mattress foam, leaves, or unhygienic cloths.” That realization propelled her into founding PadMad, a social enterprise tackling period poverty with locally made reusable sanitary pads and community-based education.

What started as a community sewing initiative became a registered enterprise producing certified reusable pads that meet Kenya Bureau of Standards guidelines—a policy milestone Dalal helped shape herself.

“The idea of making something standard with minimum quality requirements,” she explained, “was to make sure we weren’t creating another problem, like infections from unsafe materials.”

In The Samburu Project’s May 2024 spotlight, PadMad was praised for creating a “ripple effect of empowerment,” where girls gain confidence, attend school regularly, and women gain employment through local textile work. She said, “The majority of women I work with are single mothers, but there’s a sisterhood that forms. Whether they have little or much, they share.”

However, the ripple effects of PadMad go beyond menstrual health. “It’s not just about menstrual health,” Dalal said. “It’s about dignity—being able to carry yourself through it by yourself.” Her work, rooted in compassion and cultural understanding, has reshaped how communities view not only menstruation, but also empowerment itself.

Dalal learned early that talking about menstruation wasn’t just about access; it was about conversation. “Now I know that taboo really wasn’t a taboo,” she said, “It’s just that people don’t talk about it.”

She also emphasized that change begins at home: “We encourage every father, every mother, every sibling to talk about it at home. That’s the safety net. That’s where you should feel comfortable asking questions.”

Dalal recognizes that menstrual inequality doesn’t exist in isolation. She stated, “If there’s a systemic problem, we bring in partners.” She further explained, “For example, if they don’t have water, we work with organizations that bring in water solutions.”

This approach further reflects the “systems change” philosophy she describes in her Medium essay titled ‘Four Lessons from the Frontlines of Period Poverty in Kenya,’ that meaningful impact comes from co-creating dignity, not dependence.

When asked about success, Dalal doesn’t cite figures or findings. “The impact really isn’t in the numbers,” she told the IAF student group, “it’s in how I’ve impacted those people.”

She recalled visiting a kindergarten class in a Nairobi slum where the teacher asked what the children were grateful for. She recalled them saying things like “I’m happy the sun is shining,” or “I’m happy my parents brought me to school.”

“These were children living in real poverty,” she said softly, “yet their joy was so profound.” She then compared that moment to the rest of the world and said, “That should be our gratitude. We forget the little things that bring us joy.”

When asked what advice she’d offer young social entrepreneurs, Dalal said, “Dignity is universal. Whatever you’re promoting, make sure that the individual can carry themselves through it, by themselves.” She clarified, “Independence rather than interdependence—that’s dignity.”

Dalal’s aforementioned superpower has touched hundreds of communities and thousands of girls and women. In the end, her greatest impact may be inspiring others to find that same courage in themselves.

“As much as you can refine your ego with all the things you’ve done,” she said quietly, “what really matters is how many people you’ve touched, and how you want to be remembered.”