The PROBUS club of the Kowie held their monthly meeting at the R72 saloon on Tuesday, October 11 where its members enjoyed an enlightening talk by award-winning Ndlambe resident, Candy Androliakos. Androliakos did a presentation on Leafline Washable Sanitary Wear for which she has recently won an Eco Logic Gold Award.
Androliakos took to the podium to speak about Leafline affordable and biogradable products made from pineapple fibre that was opened in April 2021 in Bathurst. Leafline won the Gap Green award in 2018 awarded by the Innovation Hub and in 2020 they scooped first place in the SAB Foundation Disability Empowerment Awards. This year, the product has won the Eco Logic Gold Award, an environmental award sponsored by Dischem that the business hopes they will now be able to supply Dischem stores with their products.
Business owner, Candy Androliakos told PROBUS members how she started the business when she discovered a need for a more cost-effective way of dealing with adult incontinence.
“I was working in a retirement home when an elderly resident asked me to make a cost effective alternative to the disposable diaper. I managed to find a pattern for the outer garment and then discovered the fibre on a billboard at the big pineapple. The farmer who had made the billboard assisted me in obtaining some fibre to use and figure out how to put it into the product,” she explained. Leafline produces sanitary products, nappies, chair and bed protectors made from pineapple fibre.
In her presentation, Androliakos highlighted how the environmental problem around disposable items on the market which end up on dumpsites and create bacterial problems and landfill concerns. “Disposable nappies take between 500-800 years to decompose. This is creating major landfill problems, I would like to create an awareness around how this is going to affect us in time to come,” she said.
Leafline employs women from Enkuthazweni Special Needs Centre in Nemato, an NPO that provides opportunities to children and young adults with intellectual disabilities. “I was looking at employment options for adults with disabilities, the beginning stage of our product is a simple process, which I thought they would be able to do, however, they are now able to sew the entire product. The work they do is amazing and the quality they produce is unbelievable,” she says.
To date, Lealife has donated around 1000 sanitary pads to women in need through their partnership with the local SPAR and assistance from BVSA. “We decided to join in the drive for Sanitary towels in schools, the SPAR at Rosehill assisted with this, we have also done various competitions in the past to collect pads, also assisted by various businesses in the community. BVSA assisted with our first collection. We continue to collect and donate to various schools in the area,” she said.
Leafline products are available for purchase at the local SPARs and they are targeting to get nationwide distribution to the SPAR franchise and are also planning to expand the business to neighbouring African countries as Botswana and Zimbabwe are interested in the products. “We are hoping to get into larger retail stores, this will enable us to sustain ourselves and create more employment,” she said.
The PROBUS meeting followed the club’s successful bring and braai at the Marina last month, which was their first outing since Covid. The meeting started off with the induction of four new members being welcomed by club president, Cyril Gebhardt. The club currently has 66 members and will be inducting more new members in the next meeting.
In his opening address, present Gebhardt noted how 10 PROBUS clubs have been closed down in recent months due to no succession plan and reassured the members in attendance that would not be the case for Kowie PROBUS Club as they have succession plans in place.
“We have an exceptional management committee and I take this opportunity to thank my fellow MANCO members for their input. Without your management committee, there would not be a PROBUS. Long live Kowie PROBUS,” he said.
