Sri Lanka has a long way to go to achieve gender equality. In 2020, the country ranked 102 out of 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report. In 2006, Sri Lanka ranked 13th, so things have gotten worse for women. This should not even be surprising, given the way a natural part of every woman’s life is treated. Women make up 52% of Sri Lanka’s population, but sadly, an integral part of their lives is treated as taboo and is even a cause for discrimination: periods.

Eva is on a mission to change things around for women, and for more than 30 years has invested considerably to ensure women can lead normal lives during often uncomfortable and sometimes painful menstrual periods. Its affordability has helped countless women across the country fulfil a basic need and is the reason why Eva enjoys an 80% market share as per LMRB Household Data.

ICL Brands offers a range of feminine care products under Eva at affordable prices, whereas imported feminine/menstrual care products are priced two to three times as much. Eva is not just affordable, but has also diligently perfected its range of sanitary napkins for more than three decades. It has introduced different sanitary napkin products to suit different needs of Sri Lankan women, ensuring the highest international standards in absorption, comfort, and hygiene so that women can carry on with their lives with dignity and freedom.

ICL Brands (Pvt) Ltd manufactures and markets several other well-known brands such as grooming & fragrance brands Black Night, Signature and Voodoo, baby care brand Rebecca Lee, herbal & natural remedies brand Nivaran, and leading the fight against Covid-19 is Safe Guard, a range of facemasks, handwashes, disinfectants, and hand sanitizers. However, Eva remains ICL Brands’s flagship brand and is even exported to the Maldives, Kosovo, and Lebanon.

Eva commits significant resources on R&D and the latest manufacturing technology at its stateof-the-art factory – which can supply the needs of every woman in the country. Eva’s R&D team recently launched a new and improved range of sanitary napkins, with an antibacterial layer infused with Green tea essence—an industry first—to give women a safe, odourless, and infection-free experience during their periods.

Incidentally, Eva has had many firsts in the market here, including the first to change the shape and form of sanitary napkins to fit the contours of the female body, the first to introduce sanitary pads with protective wings that prevent side leaks and bunching, and the first to introduce a six-layered napkin for maximum absorption and leakage protection.

With billions of women and girls around the world of menstrual age, 75% will experience vaginal yeast, bacterial infections, or period odour during their lifetime, which can cause serious health problems if not debilitating discomfort. The new antibacterial layer in Eva sanitary napkin products utilizes the latest in anti-microbial treatment technology to attract and kill microbes like bacteria and fungi.

The natural green tea essence, rich in antioxidants, neutralizes period odour. Bonded into six layers of highly absorbent protection material with a deep-channel liquid lock-in absorption system, a raised centre and a fastabsorbing top sheet, this new antibacterial layer with 100% improved absorbency gives women the ultimate comfort and confidence. Eva is also committing considerable resources to raise awareness and break archaic cultural taboos that are holding women back.

The penetration of sanitary pads is alarmingly and inexcusably low in South Asia, as low as 10% in some parts of South Asia. In Sri Lanka, the situation is better with an annual penetration of around 60%, but far from satisfactory.

Outside urban areas, schoolgirls still stay away from school when they get their periods and many adult women still use unhygienic means, such as using cloth to absorb the menstrual flow and only wearing sanitary napkins when they go out. Eva works with the Ministry of Education to promote awareness about menstrual health and hygiene among school kids, and equally importantly to break social taboos around what is a natural part of any woman’s life. It distributes free sanitary napkins to schoolgirls at these programmes held around the country. Eva also works with the

Midwives Association of Sri Lanka and other health organisations, to spread awareness about good health practices that help girls and women be all they can be. By investing in new technology, committing resources to improve and perfect its product range to offer Sri Lankan women the very best quality at affordable prices, and partnering an island-wide awareness programme, ICL Brands is helping change the fortunes of the country’s women in a fundamental way.

EVA is also committing considerable resources to raise awareness and break archaic cultural taboos that are holding women back.