PHOTO: Boitumelo Ramela, founder, Ele-Sure
LEN KALANE
Ask Boitumelo Ramela a simple question and she will turn it into a business. Why does protection have to be bulky? Why do so many girls reach their first period with no one to explain it? Why is this still a conversation only half the family is invited to?
Those questions, asked first in her own life and then in the communities around her, are the foundation of Ele-Sure, a South African menstrual health and hygiene company that is building innovative sanitary products while promoting dignity, education and access. It is a manufactured, certified, shelf-ready product today. It began as a nagging question.
Where it started
Boitumelo was born and raised in Ga-Molekana, outside Mokopane. Long before there was a brand, there were sanitary-pad drives: she gathered pads and took them to girls in communities who needed them. The work felt good, but the more she did it, the more she saw that a pack of pads was only the first layer of the problem.
“I realised that the challenge was bigger than access to pads,” she says. “Many girls lacked education, confidence, and support when it came to understanding menstruation.”
Handing out a product could not fix what had never been explained. The silence around periods was doing as much harm as the shortage.
“I started asking why sanitary protection had to be thick to be effective.”
The question that became a product
The second thread was personal. Boitumelo had her own experience of heavy and unpredictable periods, and it made her look hard at what was on the shelves. The protection that coped with heavy flow tended to come with bulk, and she wanted to know whether it had to. Could something be thinner, comfortable and still reliable?
That question became the seed of the company. Even the name carries it: Ele-Sure is a play on feminine, free from doubt.
Not what you think it is
If you assume a pad is cotton, you are in good company, and Boitumelo is quick to correct it. Ele-Sure pads are not made from cotton. They are engineered with seven specialised absorbent layers designed to absorb fluid quickly, lock it away and keep the surface drier. Add the brand’s Anion Chip technology, which helps maintain freshness and control odour, and the result is a thin, comfortable pad without the bulk traditionally associated with heavy-flow protection.
| INSIDE THE PAD Seven layers – Specialised absorbent layers that rapidly absorb and lock away fluid while keeping the surface drier. Anion Chip technology – Designed to help maintain freshness and control odour. Thin, not bulky – Reliable protection without the bulk traditionally associated with heavy-flow pads. Not cotton – Engineered rather than cotton-based, a common assumption the brand is happy to correct. Certified – Manufactured to SABS, SAHPRA and USP standards. Sealed – Every pad individually wrapped in a food-grade sterile wrapper until the user opens it. |
For a young brand, those last two details matter as much as the technology. Quality and safety, she says, sit at the heart of everything. Each pad is individually sealed in a food-grade sterile wrapper, and production is manufactured to meet SABS, SAHPRA and USP standards. In a category built on trust, she has chosen to earn it from the first pack.
The father who changed the conversation
Somewhere in the middle of the pad drives, Boitumelo met Luis Rocha, a single father raising two daughters. He told her something that stayed with her: how hard it had been, as a dad, to understand and navigate menstrual products with no guidance, while wanting to support his girls.
It reframed everything. If a devoted father could feel lost, then menstrual health education could not remain “a conversation for women”. Fathers, brothers and whole communities needed a seat at the table. “Menstrual health should not be seen as a conversation only for women and girls,” she says. “It is a topic where families, including fathers and brothers, need to be involved.”
That is why Ele-Sure is, at once, a product company and an education movement.
“Ele-Sure represents more than a product. It represents empowerment, awareness, and creating solutions that respond to real experiences.”
PHOTO: BOITUMELO RAMELA DISPLAYING HER PRODUCT
Building it the hard way
When she started, Boitumelo thought she was building a better sanitary product. She did not see the mission growing into one about dignity and about changing how people think and talk about menstruation. But turning an idea into something physical is a slow, expensive business.
Funding has been the biggest challenge. Manufacturing needs money, research and patience, and there have been moments when the pressure felt overwhelming. What she learned was to be resourceful, to build meaningful partnerships, and to measure progress in small steps. “The mission behind Ele-Sure has always been bigger than the challenges,” she says, “and that keeps me moving forward.”
The market is another hurdle. Ele-Sure is a new name on shelves where established competitors have long held ground. Her answer is not to outshout them. The brand goes to market through education initiatives, community engagement, social media, partnerships and direct conversations with customers. It leads with quality, builds trust, and lets people understand the purpose and innovation behind the pad. It is available in selected pharmacies and Spar retail outlets, including the e-commerce line (www.elesure.co.za), costing R32.
A week in the life
There is no neat division between work and life here. Boitumelo is building a manufacturing business, raising her child as a mum, and continuing her studies, all at the same time. Her weeks are very busy, and she says they work because of discipline, planning and intentional use of her time.
Some days are harder than others. On those days she reminds herself that every small action is feeding a bigger vision, and she thinks of the women and girls who still need better menstrual health solutions, and of the generations who will inherit what Ele-Sure builds.
What she is proudest of
It is not a trophy. It is the journey itself: an idea inspired by a community need, now a real, manufactured product. And alongside it, the conversations Ele-Sure has started about menstrual health and the stigma around periods. As she puts it, building something meaningful rarely happens through big actions. It happens through small steps, taken consistently.
“Starting small taught me that meaningful change does not always begin with large resources,” she says. “It begins with purpose, consistency, and the courage to solve a problem that matters.”
Five years from now
Her vision has always been bigger than a sanitary pad brand. In five years, Boitumelo wants Ele-Sure to be a recognised African menstrual health brand that provides innovative, quality products while continuing to educate communities. She wants the business to expand its reach, create opportunities, and make sure more women and girls have access to products they can trust.
A trusted African company that combines innovation, education, quality and dignity: that is the destination, and she is building it one small step at a time.
IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA YOU ARE AFRAID TO START
“Start with what you have and be willing to learn along the way. Many people wait for the perfect time, but growth comes from taking the first step and improving as you go.
Purpose, resilience, and consistency can turn a small idea into something meaningful. Some ideas will sound like moonshots to many people, but I can guarantee you that the sky is the limit.”
— Boitumelo Ramela, founder of Ele-Sure
