Sharon Crane, Ph.D. ’94, recently traveled to Malawi with her pro bono client, The Pennington School, a preparatory school in New Jersey for whom she has filed a utility and design patent for an invention that can improve the lives of girls and women at a refugee camp.
The lack of sanitary products in developing countries is a major reason girls have to leave school when they reach puberty. Crane, a partner at law firm Rothwell Figg, filed a utility and a design patent for a semi-reusable menstrual pad for the girls and women at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp designed by Women in STEM Solving Problems (WISSP) from the Pennington School.
A separate group from the Pennington School designed a sturdy classroom desk for the crowded classrooms at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp. The desks can be economically made from a simple design in a nearby factory and give students a place to sit and work instead of the damp, concrete floor. Through monetary donations from the firm and a matching donation from Crane, they were able to fill a classroom with desks.