Female entrepreneurs of Wofford  

“A period ends a sentence – not a girl’s education,” pronounced Ella Patrick ’20, speaking on the inspiration behind the business, “She’s Here.” The business was started by Ella Partrick ‘20, Olivia Groce ‘20 and Olivia Schraibman ‘20 through the SPACE’s entrepreneurial LAUNCH program at Wofford College. Combining efforts to educate girls in Sub-Saharan Africa about menstrual health and economically empowering Massa Women, “She’s Here” operates by selling handcrafted beaded bracelets for $10 that state “She’s Here.” Profits from the sales goe to an organization called Kilipads which gives educational seminars to girls in Africa about menstrual health and provides each girl with a reusable sanitary napkin.  

According to Patrick, the inspiration for the business idea stemmed from an eighth grade visit to Tanzania with her mom. After going to a grocery store, noticing a lack of feminine hygiene products and hearing stories of how girls were dropping out of school because of their periods, Patrick noticed a basic missing need which prompted her to start her business.  

According to shesherecampaign.com, young girls are missing twenty percent of their school year in order to avoid being taunted by other male students and teachers. The days they miss affect their grades, which keeps them constrained to the vicious cycle of poverty. The name “She’s Here” was inspired by this statistic, with the hope that when a teacher calls the roll for class to begin, all of the girls can say, “I’m here.” 

All three founders agree that they want this campaign to “reach people around the country outside of the Wofford community” so that awareness can continue to grow. In order to spread awareness about this goal, they launched a social media campaign on March 8, International Women’s Day, called “WhereInTheWorldIsShe. According to the founders, the campaign operates off of the idea that “empowered women empower women,” allowing girls to post pictures of themselves wearing the signature red bracelet on their social media account with the hashtag #WhereInTheWorldIsShe.  

Groce explained, “We want this campaign to hopefully attract more followers and gain attention online.” Schraibman added, “We would love for our next step to be to have an ambassador program so girls from Wofford, Clemson or the College of Charleston could promote what we are doing and sell bracelets by promoting it on their own social media and college campus.” 

If you are interested in supporting this cause and buying a bracelet or joining the campaign, you can check out the  “She’s Here” Instagram page (shes_here_campaign) or their new website (https://www.shesherecampaign.com). Currently they have donated around $2000 to the cause.  

Written by Grace Ghelken