The Cova Project and Partners

MEET THE TEAM

The Cova Project team is made up of a dynamic group of people from all over the world, who are unified by one goal:

To provide access to safe sanitary supplies for women in developing communities

Young woman outdoors in a tropical setting, presenting a large diagram of the female reproductive system on paper to a small group, including children and adults.

Meet Our Partners

Irise Institute East Africa (IIEA) is our proud Ugandan partner. IIEA has successfully distributed 5,000 menstrual cups and was asked by local government to provide vital support to the Jinja community during Uganda's lockdown. The Cova Project supported this by funding essential PPE for the team and 1,000 bars of soap for the community. . The Cova Project and IIEA's partnership has extended past project work and into advocacy, with the organisations collaborating to change the menstrual health landscape across East Africa. This is just the beginning...

A large group of women and girls smiling and posing outdoors in front of a small hut, with trees, laundry lines, and a clear sky in the background.
A woman in a yellow blazer and red blouse standing outdoors, gesturing with her hand while speaking to children seated at desks on a grassy area. The children are dressed in school uniforms and have notebooks and papers in front of them.

We Empower Her is a refugee run organisation in Nakivale refugee settlement, started by Cova Project advisor, Gabriella Amini. We Empower Her is a wonderful organisation that empowers and encourages women to understand their bodies and their potential. We Empower Her has distributed 500 cups and with the mentorship of Irise East Africa, has moved towards formalising their organisation. This is an exciting step forward for this community based organisation with the potential to have a massive impact.

We Empower Her | Uganda

A group of women and children gathered outdoors in front of trees and a thatched hut, celebrating with paper documents and smiling. A colorful reproductive health poster is visible in front.
Five women standing outdoors, smiling and laughing, wearing matching blue t-shirts, with a brick building and green trees in the background.

CARVE Africa aims to enhance informed decision-making ability for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) using a gender and age-inclusive community-powered approach.

We have been working with Betti Nlhane, her daughter, Eluby Shaba and Casey English since 2019. Betti is a known matriarch of the community and for years has hosted women’s groups in her living room, where women can freely speak about their challenges.

Casey was working as a nurse lecturer at Mzuzu University in 2019 when we began work in Malawi. She is a trusted global health professional and contributes essential medical knowledge to the project.

A group of women and children sitting outdoors on the ground, attending an educational session led by a woman standing and holding papers, in a rural setting with makeshift structures and lush green plants.
Group of smiling women and girls outdoors, some holding face masks and small items, with trees and a building in the background.

Educate West Point (EWP) is a well respected NGO in Liberia's largest slum, West Point. Started by changemaker, Musa Sheriff, Educate West Point was created to provide a safe space for young West Pointers to gain a pre primary education and to fund educational pathways for primary and high school students. Keeping students in school goes hand in hand with menstrual cups. Our longest partnership, EWP has newly assigned passionate and knowledge hungry trainers, Karolyn, Euodia and Genevieve, to manage TCP Liberia. These young women are the future of Liberia….

A woman standing and speaking to a group of seated women and children outdoors in a rural area, with palm trees and simple buildings in the background.
Three women standing outdoors near a green building and fence, holding signs with messages about empowering girls and investing in their future.

Yebetumi is a feminist nonprofit organization working to advance the rights and development of women and girls of all diversities, empowering them with knowledge and skills, and creating spaces for them to action their rights. The word “Yebetumi” is an Akan word that means “We Can”. At the core of their work is intersectionality, solidarity, diversity and inclusion as it pertains to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, Sex and Sexuality positivity, Gender Based Violence, Education, HIV and AIDS, Leadership and Political Participation and Economic Justice.

Yebetumi | Ghana

Two women talking outdoors near a purple and orange Yebutumi banner with group photos and text about women's rights and health issues.
A young girl in a school uniform holding a paper figure in a classroom. Behind her, a whiteboard with diagrams and various posters with drawings and text are visible on the walls.

After a long awaited delivery, the 80 cups we shared with School For Life in 2020 (before the covid outbreak) finally made it to Uganda! These cups were strategically delivered to the teachers at School For Life as a pilot to see whether the teachers believed they’d be an appropriate solution for the girls. Well, after a training by Janepher and the team, 88% of the teachers are using and loving their cups and 83% said it improved their confidence compared to what they used before. As an important friend in the Australian international development space, we are so excited to have started this partnership with School For Life!

School For Life | Uganda

A group of women standing outside on grass, holding small white pouches. They are smiling and posing for the photo, with a building and green hills in the background.
A group of women and girls sitting outdoors, smiling and laughing. The woman in the front is holding a small container, possibly for a medical or health-related activity.

Past Partnerships

A woman with red glasses talking to a young girl with a cotton swab, a man in the background wearing a face mask, outdoors under trees.

The Kyereh Foundation x Yevu | Ghana

The Cova Project Ghana, Kyereh x Yevu, is our first project partnership pulled together entirely over Zoom and Whatsapp. Due to the pandemic, our Ghanaian project exclusively with Yevu was unable to go ahead, so we brought on a new partner with a track record of successful menstrual cup distributions. Distributing cups since early 2019, The Kyereh Foundation was a natural fit for partnership. Nana Akua leads a team that travels to rural communities on the Ivory Coast border to reach girls most in need of menstrual health solutions.

Group of women and children standing in front of a building with colorful signs representing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

PHAU x Opportunigee | Uganda

In partnership with Kampala based organisation, Public Health Ambassadors Uganda (PHAU) is Opportunigee, a refugee run organisation in Nakivale refugee settlement. Opportunigee is a wonderful organisation tackling many issues, one being the empowerment of women. Our efforts are headed up by a team of passionate women, who believe that access to sanitary products should be a human right and good hygiene practices are essential for women living in the settlement.

Group of students in school uniforms, smiling, standing outside near a brick wall, holding papers, with a sunny sky in the background.

Star For Life | South Africa

The Cova Project supported Flowcup and Star for Life’s menstrual cup initiative with 2,500 menstrual cups destined for their mobile clinics in South Africa. Mobile clinics are essential for outreach in rural areas to support the most vulnerable girls lacking access to period products due to financial constraints and geographic constraints.

The Cova Project

Meet Our People

Founder/CEO (Australia)

G.D Anderson/Geena Dunne

G.D is an Australian activist and writer. In 2015 she worked for a non profit in Namibia and experienced their unique work providing free healthcare to the marginalised San community. That experience inspired Geena to work on solutions to ease the burdens of women living in low income communities. In 2018 she founded The Cova Project.

G.D is a Co-founder of Women Who Innovate and the Founder of Honey Badges NFT, responsible for funding global change-makers. In 2022, Geena and her team created Philanthrop3, a public resource hub for charities and nonprofits to better understand the Web3 space and potential of crypto philanthropy. 

Geena is also known for penning the globally recognised feminist quote, "Feminism isn't about making women stronger, women are already strong, it's about changing the way the world perceives that strength", in 2012. 

An active community builder with a passion for creating global networks with shared goals, Geena looks to merge technology and impact at every possible opportunity to create a more equal world for all. 

To learn more about G.D, click here

To find out about G.D's other work, click here

Communications and Operations Lead (Australia)

Sebastian Parker

Sebastian is the Communications and Operations Lead at The Cova Project. He brings experience from London’s startup scene and communications work in Australia’s deep tech sector, helping founders and emerging teams tell their stories and be heard. Having grown up across different countries, Sebastian is passionate about culture, community and creativity, and believes in storytelling that builds trust and shifts outcomes. Grounded in a strong commitment to gender equality, he helps shape the organisation’s voice while strengthening the systems that support delivery.

Find Sebastian on Linkedin here

Board of Directors

  • A smiling woman standing in front of a plain background.

    Dr Samantha Malcolm

    Non Executive Director

  • Black and white portrait of a smiling woman with shoulder-length wavy hair and dangling earrings, wearing a dark shirt, standing against a plain light background.

    Louisa Beale

    Non Executive Director

  • Geena Dunne

    Director/CEO

  • A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair smiling outdoors, wearing a black and white patterned top.

    Nell Anderson

    Company Secretary/Governance Advisor

Cova Project Governance

Advisory Board

  • A woman with long black hair smiling outdoors, wearing a black blazer and black top, with a patterned sleeve detail, standing on a balcony with trees in the background.

    Tara Croker

    Tara Croker, a proud First Nations Wiradjuri woman, is a trailblazing entrepreneur who seamlessly merges her Indigenous heritage with the dynamic world of business. Her career trajectory includes coveted roles in high profile global corporations such as Google, YouTube and News Corp. She is the founder of Yaala Sparkling, a multi-award winning beverage company that celebrates the rich flavours of native Australian plants.

  • A smiling woman with long dark hair and subtle highlights, wearing a black top, against a dark background.

    Jackie Rabec

    Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, building intelligent clinical tools for frontline healthcare workers in underserved communities globally. Medical doctor turned product leader at Google, Heidi Health and Prospection historically. Experience building digital products across population-based predictive analytics, clinical decision support tools, ward task management, mobile patient engagement, patient-reported outcome measures at scale.

  • Smiling woman with shoulder-length wavy hair in a pinstripe blazer, standing in front of a pink and purple lit background.

    Tina Tran

    Tina Tran is currently the Healthtech Customers Lead at Google Cloud Australia, based out of Sydney. Tina has 10+ years of experience in the Tech industry. Tina works with founders and CTOs to fuel the ambitious growth trajectory of their startups. Passionate about the startup ecosystem, she is also an angel investor and leads a number of VC & startup community initiatives as part of Google for Startups.

  • A smiling woman with curly red hair, wearing a white long sleeve top and brown pants, standing outdoors on a city street.

    Ebony Westman

    Ebony is an experienced gender equality advocate with over a decade of experience promoting the rights of women and girls in all their diversity, in Australia and internationally. Ebony has a Masters in Gender Studies and a Masters in Development Studies, specialising in Peace and Conflict Studies, in the Netherlands. Ebony has worked across state and territory governments in domestic violence prevention and policy reform, and disability inclusion reform. 

  • A woman with curly brown hair smiling in a bathroom with tiled walls and a mirror.

    Melanie Caffrey

    Melanie has over 20 years' experience as Head of Marketing within various asset management and alternative investment groups across the UK and Australia. Melanie is passionate about improving the health and well-being of girls, firmly believing every girl deserves to menstruate safely and with dignity. Through the Blair Caffrey Foundation, Melanie supports initiatives that empower girls and women within their communities.

  • A smiling man in a black t-shirt and gray pants standing outdoors near a body of water with a mountain in the background.

    Scott Malcolm

    Scott Malcolm has over 25 years of experience in investment banking and corporate finance in Australia and the USA. He is Chairman of the Sydney based corporate advisory firm, Greenstone Partners which he founded in 2003.  Prior to Greenstone Partners, Scott was a Director in Credit Suisse’s investment banking department in Sydney.

  • Close-up of an older man with gray hair, light skin, wearing a dark suit, blue checkered shirt, and a blue tie, smiling slightly against a plain background.

    Paul Johnson

    Paul is a leader in Australia’s risk management sector. He was a financial, accounting and forensic skills expert for 19 years at Deloitte. For the last 20 years, he has been responsible for working within the Insurance Industry and leading large consulting teams to consult to business operations whether corporate, government and not for profit on risk management.

Trusted Partners

  • A woman with shoulder-length brown hair smiling, wearing a dark blazer and a necklace with a peace symbol, with a floral background.

    Diana Lidforsen

    Cup supplier (Sweden)

    Diana started FlowCup in 2017, hoping to bring the economic and environmentally friendly menstrual cup into the mainstream. Her business philosophy is ‘Impact over Profits‘, which is why Flowcup became the ideal supplier for The Cova Project.

    I believe that access to comfortable and safe sanitary protections should be every woman's right, no matter where in the world she lives. Contributing to this has always been obvious to me

    To find out about FlowCup, click here

  • A woman with braided hair holding a booklet or magazine in front of a colorful background with signs about poverty and water conservation.

    Gabriella Amini

    EX Project Leader & Trainer Nakivale Refugee Settlement

    Gabriella is a 27 year old Congolese refugee who lives in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a poet and a writer, and was one of the scholars of the entrepreneurship program run by the organisation Opportunigee. She now mentors women from several different nationalities in reproductive health and women's sexual education. Gabriella is a social changemaker, and founded a collective in Nakivale called We Empower Her, thats mission is empowerment and development for women.

  • A woman with braids in a white t-shirt pointing to a whiteboard with a diagram of the female reproductive system, while holding a microphone.

    Abena Benewaa Fosu

    EX Project Leader and Trainer Ghana

    Abena, affectionately known as ‘The Menstrual Queen’ is a Feminist Activist with particular interest in women's sexual pleasure, bodily rights, queer rights, sexual and reproductive health, economic liberation and political participation. She envisages and works towards a world where women can be anything and everything they want without judgement or discrimination. A world where patriarchy is only a once upon a time in history state of affairs.

Cova Affiliate Team

  • A young woman with curly reddish-brown hair smiling outdoors, wearing a green turtleneck and gold jewelry, with a background of large plants and a metal fence.

    Ebony Westman

    Ebony is based in the Netherlands, completing her Masters degree in Development Studies, in The Hague. Ebony's research focuses on care-based practices, gender-responsive humanitarian programming, peace and human security. Ebony has her Masters in Gender Studies and through paid and non-paid roles, she has had the opportunity to work alongside feminist organisations to advance gender justice. Ebony is committed to approaching challenging issues of intersectional justice with joy, curiosity and collaboration.

  • A young man with short brown hair and blue eyes smiling, wearing a black t-shirt, standing indoors with a colorful background.

    Alex Kelso

    Alex is a Product Manager with full-stack training, he has spent the past eight years building and executing strategies for dozens of global businesses.

    Alex has spent the last year developing the Cova Affiliate platform. The platform expedites the onboarding process for 'project implementors' (grassroots organisations in Africa), enabling swift registration, training, and launching of their initiatives in areas impacted by period poverty. Central to the platform's functionality is its role as an integrated hub offering education, resources, training, and support.

Learn about Cova Affiliate

Consultants & Volunteers

  • A smiling woman wearing a brightly colored headwrap and matching dress in African print patterns.

    Abena Benewaa Fosu

    Menstrual Health Consultant - West Africa

    Abena Benewaa is a Feminist Activist and Media Development Practitioner with over 10yrs of experience working in social justice for women and girls, specifically women and girl's sexual and reproductive health and rights and socio-economic and political meaningful inclusion. Achieving a world where women and girls live in dignity and are able to realise their full potential without any gender based discriminations or hindrances has been her personal goal. She is an active member of Ghana's online feminist community, using her voice and platforms to advocate and help normalise otherwise taboo conversations especially around women's sexual and reproductive health. Abena also initiated a project called Yebetumi, through which she implemented interventions aimed at improving the lives of rural women and girls. Pursuant to her passion, she has over the years worked with Curious Minds; a women and youth focused advocacy NGO, African Women's Development Fund, a women led and focused philanthropic NGO, FemInStyle Africa; a PAN African women focused digital magazine, DW Akademie, a German media development organisation, and collaborated with other local and international women focused organisations in different capacities.

  • Portrait of a young woman smiling, wearing a blue top, standing against a plain light-colored wall.

    Charlotte Goutallier

    Volunteer

    As a junior doctor, Charlotte's enthusiasm for medical education infuses her efforts with an educational slant, aiming not only to treat but also to teach, thereby amplifying the impact of the Cova Project's mission. Driven by a belief in the transformative power of knowledge, Charlotte is keen to contribute to the fundraising, development and delivery of medical education programs within the project. She views the distribution of menstrual cups not merely as a provision of essential items but as part of a larger narrative of education, independence, and dignity for womxn. Charlotte's expertise extends to physical wellbeing through her work as a Pilates instructor, providing her with an  understanding of the physical aspects of womxn's health, particularly during the pivotal times of pregnancy and postpartum recovery. As she joins the Cova Project volunteer team, Charlotte is determined to harness her passion for women's health, her educational acumen, and her research capabilities to make a lasting difference. She ardently believes that ensuring womxn have the tools to manage their menstrual health is crucial in maintaining their presence in educational and professional environments, thereby fostering their potential to excel and succeed.

Make a donation.

Please give generously to The Cova Project. Your Donations go a long way!

Donate