Penduka - assignment 3

Penduka Foundation is an organisation dedicated to empowering women and transforming lives. Since its establishment in 1992, Penduka has been driven by a powerful social enterprise model, focusing on the economic empowerment of women in Namibia's marginalized communities by helping them develop skills and promoting their creativity. Hundreds of women’s lives have been transformed by the foundation. Penduka offers unique and high-quality handmade that showcase the remarkable talents and stories of their artisans (the women empowered by it). The organisation raises funds for supporting women via donations and via selling the hand-made products the women create.  

The organisation is continuously involved in meaningful projects that help support women. Three initiatives are highlighted here in connection to the assignments: 

1. The first one is the 1 woman = 1 euro campaign. The campaign was created by Yes Women Monaco to support Penduka and its cause. The idea behind it is a donation model (via a QR code) in which, with one euro, a person can support a woman in need. The donation model is meant to be shared by Penduka via its social networks.  
2. The second initiative is Penduka’s Period Plan (PPP). This is a community-driven programme that provides sustainable menstrual wear solutions through the production and sale of reusable products, including absorbent briefs and reusable inserts. Beyond providing access to affordable, dignified products, the initiative also creates income-generating opportunities by equipping women with production kits, skills training, and support to manufacture the products themselves. In doing so, the project not only addresses menstrual health needs but also empowers women economically and strengthens community resilience. The plan includes several steps: having women in Namibia working on making the products, selling the products locally, and making the products available as part of the Penduka product line. To start with, Penduka wants to reach out to a group of 12 women in Namibia to show them how to make the inserts and take it from there.  
   Currently, Penduka and its Fair-Trade partners in Korea are investigating the purchase of high-absorbency materials from Taiwan and machinery needed for the production processes used by factories that make the reusable underwear (in Shri Lanka). The increase of oil prices is making the process more complicated and expensive now. The import and legislation in Namibia seem to be a long process as well, since this will be the first production ever of underwear in Namibia. 
3. The third is the Penduka store in Groningen (https://www.facebook.com/PendukaNL/), a local opportunity for supporting women in Namibia.  

Creating a new social media strategy for Penduka, including helping the women artisans make their own content. Penduka has a website and is more active on Facebook and Instagram. In semester 1 of 2025-2026, IC year 1 students worked on ideas for improving Penduka’s online presence, including content for its online Platforms. The goal was to reach new audiences in Europe. Penduka was pleased with what the students created and would like that to be a basis for the social media strategy in this assignment. The online content and ideas put forth by the year 1 students can be made available to the year 4 students working on this assignment. 

The creation of a social media strategy can be done remotely. Helping the women artisans make their own content requires an on-site hands-on approach. Penduka is currently looking for an IC year 3 intern to work with the women in Namibia on this aspect. If a year 4 student would like to combine the social media strategy with helping women make their own content, then they would have to go to Namibia for a few months. This would entail working closely with the social media manager there, taking photos, and working on meaningful stories and content. Accommodation can be provided for free by Penduka. The student would need to pay for their own food and travel. To sum up: 

• The social media strategy can be done remotely (3-4 months) 
• The content building with and training of women artisans for social media needs to be done on-site in Namibia (3-4 months) 
• The combined assignment can take 3 to 5 months and is hybrid (online + Namibia).  

This assignment can be done individually or in a group of 2 students

If you're interested in this assignment, please use the form below to let us know whether you'd like to do both assignments or not.