Soap making forms the perfect basis for a sustainable social enterprise. We know as we have so far helped to set up two major projects in Tanzania and South Africa and we are about to embark on our third, in Nigeria where in June of this year, with the assistance of seven established soap makers we are going to train 1500 women how to make soap.

Depending on the scale of the project, cold process soap making requires relatively little in terms of equipment. Many of the ingredients needed are reasonably easy to source and, collection of natural ingredients such as seaweed, herbs and karite nuts can, in itself, form the basis for small micro-enterprises in rural communities. Equally, the creation of packaging for the soaps offers more entrepreneurial opportunities.

The beauty of soap is that everybody uses it and a social enterprise can be scaled according to budget. If funding is very limited people can be taught to make soap at home and to sell it within their communities but with proper core funding the vision can expand into a much larger concept, the production of soap for export, an enterprise which could provide work for a significant number of people.

The key to a successful project is in finding the right entrepreneur to run the workshop on the ground.
The best ideas for the community usually come from the community itself and it is very important that the realisation and ownership of the project remains in their hands.

Our expertise ensures that available money is well spent in terms of planning, sourcing of equipment and ingredients, training in manufacturing and marketing and quality control.

We will not take on a project unless we are convinced that our efforts will return at least five times the value of our fees in the first year of trading so if you are looking for ways of creating employment opportunities in difficult regions, think 'soap' and contact us.

If you would like to know more, email mcoss@makesoap.biz