Stories of Resilience: Lydia Thompson and Allgreen Ivy on Turning Waste into Dignity
ClimateLaunchpad profiled three African women engineering greener futures from personal experience — including our founder Lydia Thompson, who is turning banana fibre waste into biodegradable sanitary pads.
ClimateLaunchpad's feature "Stories of Resilience: How African Women are Engineering a Greener Future from Personal Experience" profiled three founders turning lived hardship into climate solutions — Aishat Adama Adamu of Rekool Access Technology, Faith Kuya of SafeSip, and our own founder, Lydia Ekpong Thompson of Allgreen Ivy Limited.
The piece traces Lydia's path from 15 years working in agriculture — watching valuable banana fibres go to waste — to building a circular solution for period poverty in Nigeria, where an estimated 37 million women and girls lack access to sanitary products.
"We are proving that sustainability is not just possible. It is essential for a better future, and it begins with you and I."
The article also covers what joining the 2025 ClimateLaunchpad programme meant for the business — sharpening how we calculate our carbon footprint, and giving Lydia the tools to communicate the venture's impact with more clarity and confidence as we scale from around 100 packs a day toward a goal of 3,500.
Read the full feature, including Aishat's and Faith's stories, at ClimateLaunchpad.