Woman in Laos

Soap - a commodity in rural Laos

NGO teaching Woman to make soap and run a business

Our JUWELIS Team from Switzerland, USA and Indochina visited USA NGO Soap 4 Life which has its activities in Laos.

Soap 4 Life was established by husband and wife team Mac Maness and his Laotian wife La Vaiyakone. The Purpose for soap 4 life is to promote and develop health and economic opportunities through teaching women in Rural and impoverished communities in Laos the basic concept of soap making and selling the soap to provide a sustainable income for the families of these ladies.The production of soap and its related products such as washing powder for clothes cleaning promotes hygiene in remote areas where communities normally don’t have soap for washing.

Soap 4 life go into deep remote locations and choose a handful of motivated women after interviewing them for suitability the women would be invited to Vientiane at the home of the founders to go through a 5 day course which covers areas such as hygiene, vocational training and basic business skills as well as well as selected tourist shops. There are currently around 200 women around the country that are proficient in producing good quality grade soap. Soap 4 life are focused on community development and not on commercial business.

The Lady La Vaiyakone who is the driving force behind the training and initiative is someone who can be seen as an example of women empowerment as she started from poor beginnings and has made a successful venture from training rural women on soap making. The JUWELIS team was very impressed with the setup and structure as it fits in line with JUWELIS philosophies and is committed to work with soap 4 Life in the coming future.

For more details, please check out Soap 4 LIfe's webpage: https://www.soap4life.org/