Newsletter Vol 1, Number 2
Since we last met....
Soapmaker Training for AgroAsie
Soap4Life was approached by AgroAsie to train the women who lived and worked on their organic farm to make natural and organic soap from the products which they grow, harvest and sell in their retail outlet in Vientiane. They have a very nice and well maintained organic farm located about 40 km north of Vientiane on the bank of the Mekong River. The soil is ideal for farming and they enrich it further by applying earthworm tea, organic compost and hand cultivate it. They also have a training center and dormitories on site where they also teach organic farming methods to other villagers and organizations.
The ingredients all came fresh or dried directly from their farm.
Soap4Life provides excellent training for handicapped individuals who are unable to work in the rice fields any longer
A sampling of the many recipes developed using fresh natural and organic produce
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The 10 participants produced over 900 bars of natural and organic soap in 3 days of training
Happy Graduates...!!!
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Stirring the soap mixture with a whisk made from bamboo
The women work in pairs in order to assure that they both are understanding the process
Banana soap being poured into the wooden mold
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Phongsaly Village Recruitment
La traveled to 10 very remote villages in Phongsaly Province to deliver and distribute our soap to every family in the villages for them to use and see the benefits of using natural handmade soap instead of the commercially produced chemical based soap available from the foreign importers. She also gave hand washing training to the villagers, demonstrated soap making, distributed gifts to the children and selected 1 trainee from each village to come to Vientiane for the Womens Soap maker Training Workshop in late April.
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These are all family plots and maintained as a community,,, all working together
Village industry... Broom Making
Every household has one... 
The children are more appreciative of the simple yet unavailable gifts we distribute in each village
Mothers are trained to wash their hands
The women are always more interested than the men... they are our targets
Cutting the hardened soap
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Village Women's Training Workshop
During the last week of April, Soap4Life conducted a workshop for the 10 women selected from Phongsaly Province to be trained to make bar soap, powered washing detergent and liquid soap products from locally sourced materials available from our property and local fruit from the market. As the investment on the part of the villagers, they were required to pay their own bus fare and transportation costs to attend the training. We do not believe in the village "welfare system" that many NGOs sponsor but want our graduates to feel they have earned their training through their own work and a financial investment. Our funding was provided by our generous supporters and our soap sales to Saoban and UNICEF. The class made over 1,400 bars of soap which was divided among them to return with to their home villages where they immediately began the own small sustainable businesses. We have had excellent reports of several of the women completely selling out of the soap from the workshop and have begun making their own inventory with the equipment and supplies they were given during the graduation exercise and dinner.
The women are very shy and out of respect to them, very few pictures we taken. We want them to feel comfortable during the entire training process and only took pictures when requested.
The women are very shy and out of respect to them, very few pictures we taken. We want them to feel comfortable during the entire training process and only took pictures when requested.
Sifting the powdered washing detergent for size consistency
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Mixing the soap mixture to "trace"before pouring into the mold
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After the sifting, large pieces are used to make the liquid soap
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Soap Donations
Soap4Life has donated thousands of bars of the soap which La makes to numerous charitable organizations. Vientiane Rescue is a totally volunteer organization who delivered Mac to the hospital following his accident in December...
They are special to us... |
La and the 3,042 bars of soap she made to replace the 2,000 bars which we sold to UNICEF for their hand washing programs in the Lao schools and the soap which we distribute to the remote villages, other "grass roots" organizations and to have available when needed.
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Joma Awareness Weekend
Soap4Life was selected by Joma Cafe and Bakery for their Awareness Weekend. We set up a table each day for 3 days over Mothers Day Weekend distributed literature detailing our goals and objectives to provide 1. Hygiene. 2. Vocational Training and 3. Empowerment Opportunities for the Women of Lao. We accepted donations in exchange for our natural handmade soap which Joma matched 100%...
Thank you Joma for this generous donation and the opportunity to spread the awareness of the plight of women and children in the remote villages of Lao...
Thank you Joma for this generous donation and the opportunity to spread the awareness of the plight of women and children in the remote villages of Lao...
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Work In Progress
- We are preparing to move our facility to a more secure and remote location that will provide better security for our trainees.
- There are several organization with whom we are working to train women in their targeted villages. Nothing finalized yet but will have more information in the next newsletter.
- Soap4Life is planning to go to Nepal and India in the fall to take our program to the remote village women there.