Have you ever wondered what happens with all those little bars of soap in hotels ? You use them once or twice during a stay and then discard them. Thanks to the Global Soap Project, a non-profit organization based in Atlanta founded by humanitarian worker Derreck Kay ongo, more than 100 tons of recycled soap has been collected from hundreds of hotels in the United States, and sent to people who most they need
The process, which includes the collection of soaps from hotels, scraping, spraying, heating and reuse of the new bars, also includes laboratory tests to ensure purity before that are sent to vulnerable populations in places like Haiti and Africa. The GSP, which started in Kayongo's basement in 2011, has received national attention, thanks to the nomination it had in CNN hero in the same year.
Kayongo, realize how he came up with the idea of using the recycled soap
I grew up in Uganda watching my father make soap, and unfortunately they gave us a war that forced us to become refugees in Kenya. In Kenya, I saw firsthand what it means to have no comforts like a simple soap, and that image stayed with me.
Years later, when he arrived in the US and I checked into a hotel, only in the bathroom I saw three soaps, and this did not include the shampoos. After going through a refugee experience of not having comforts like soap and then landing in a country that spends it is only a sum of 800, 000 million bars per year, The idea of using the recycled soap came to my mind.
Soap is the first line of defense against diseases, such as diarrhea. Even the CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that if you put a bar of soap in the hands of a child and an adult, you could mitigate diarrhea deaths by 40%.
These diseases can be fatal, especially when they are found in vulnerable populations, such as in patients with HIV / AIDS who have a weak immune system. Simply put, recycled soap is a very important tool in public health.
Is it expensive to send the soap?
Kayongo also says that it is not expensive for Global Soap to send the soaps, because we have partnered with organizations that already have containers that go to places like Ghana, where we have sent 20, 000 pills of recycled soap . So the key is to work with NGOs such as Medishare or churches that have missionaries that carry the goods to Africa, and so it doesn't cost a penny for SGP.
On the other hand, GSP would love to become a teaching space for the preparation of soaps, for example, women's groups can make soaps and can also make themselves. At this point, however, we are working hard to develop a hotel soap recycling process and ensure its safe delivery to the relevant populations that need it.
Experience for Kayongo about this humanitarian work
This is more about the technical part of the story. Kayongo is not just a passionate person, he has been fortunate to work for large organizations such as CARE and Amnesty International, where he has learned to analyze the root causes of poverty and find ways to empower communities through innovation.
One has the ability to ultimately build a serious institution to combat the problem in question. CARE and Amnesty International, above all, has taught that you have to be very grateful.
Kayongo in the end just wanted to leave a message, and you never have to give up life, even when you are caught between a rock and a hard place.
Editor: JoT333, editor of the great family of the hermandadblanca.org
