This Woman's Work: Hannah Poole, Ed.M.'10

Hannah Poole, Ed.M.'10, considers herself an advocate for women.

"I feel really passionate about talking to women; about what it is they really want," Poole says.

That dedication was rewarded this past May when Poole was named recipient of the Phyllis Strimling Award at HGSE's Commencement exercises. The award recognizes "the character and achievement of a Harvard graduate with a strong academic performance who has used or is preparing to use the Harvard experience for the advancement of women and society, and who has grown personally and professionally as a result."

"It was a huge honor," Poole says. "I was humbled to be chosen out of the many fantastic individuals in the Ed School."

Poole came to this work as an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal where she majored in international development. One of her professors shared the story of an incident between an international organization and a rural village in Africa in which the mothers of the village opposed the construction of a new road through the community for fear that their children, who had to walk to school along the roadway, would be hit by speeding traffic. The organization ignored the mothers' concerns and went forward with construction. As a result, the mothers chose to stop sending their children to school.

Poole was astonished that the legitimate concerns of an entire village of women were ignored; in particular, that the organization would impose their will of development without looking at every aspect of how the village would be affected. At that moment, Poole knew where the focus of her academic and professional career would take her.

In 2005, Poole set off to Africa for a student exchange program. She was stationed in Ghana for a six-month internship with a microcredit program to assist women working in rural agricultural co-ops. Most of the women were illiterate and her job entailed helping the women get access to grant money for their agrarian business needs. The work so inspired Poole that she stayed for six months beyond her initial internship.

"Working with women and seeing how they're so talented and so capable -- I see so much inspiration from the women I worked with," Poole says.

She returned to Canada in 2006, graduated from college, and within three months was offered another job in Africa. This time, she was sent to Tanzania where she ran a business training program for women. She taught courses in business writing and English, and became involved with the Women's Chamber of Commerce. After just a year in Tanzania, personal matters moved Poole to the Boston area.

It was in Boston that Poole, while auditing a course at the Harvard Medical School, met Elizabeth Scharpf, the founder of a start-up called SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises). At that time - 2008 -  SHE was still in the developmental stages, but Poole was intrigued by the possibilities of the organization whose missions is to help local women in developing countries create their own businesses through the manufacturing and distribution of quality and eco-friendly sanitary pads made from local raw materials to ensure affordability and accessibility.

Poole signed on to help Scharpf, and that same year SHE won the MIT IDEAS Competition, a contest that encourages teams to develop and implement projects that make a positive change in the world. The award money gave them enough funding to send Poole to Rwanda to conduct field research.

"One of the big issues in Rwanda is the cost of sanitary pads because the value added tax increases the expense by almost 17 percent," Poole explains. Women and girls who cannot afford pads are forced to use rags, bark, and construction materials. Of the 500 girls she interviewed, 50 percent of them reported they missed school because of menstruation and 30 percent said they missed school because they couldn't afford sanitary pads.

Working with the women of Rwanda and honoring the commitment to local sustainable materials, SHE developed a prototype sanitary pad made from banana fibers that has shown great promise in preliminary trials. To combat the supply costs of traditional retail outlets, SHE partnered with a variety of youth, education, and community healthcare organizations that have established workers in the field to sell the banana pads to the villages they visit, which in turn creates an economic opportunity for those workers who often cannot make a livable wage from government funding alone.

"When we create an economic opportunity for women it's like you're helping two tiers," Poole says. "You're helping the mothers earn enough money to buy the sanitary pads for the girls to go to school. When the girls go to school, they're more likely to get a job that has enough money so they can continue. It's breaking the cycle."

The years Poole spent in Africa motivated her decision to apply to the Ed School's International Education Policy Program. She says the field work taught her the power education carries as a fundamental strategy toward change.

"When you educate a woman," she says, "you educate a community and you give opportunities, not just to an individual, but to an entire group of people."

This is work Poole hopes to continue now that her time at the Ed School is complete. Although her future plans have not been solidified, Poole says, "I do plan to continue to work on women's issues and support women leaders from around the world.... We can do so much to further society and economies by supporting women to engage as leaders of businesses and government and educating girls is such an important step in that process."