Foothold works with community groups and charitable small businesses to provide affordable soap to the community.

Using Foothold’s mission to help reduce disease through sustainable local resources

while empowering vulnerable populations, Cherie Catron and Charity Kiriinya train groups to make hand-crafted soap, supporting them as they develop a sustainable income.

Pacha Soap Co. provided consultation and collaboration to start the initiative, and they fund over 2,000 students with bars of soap to six local schools. When you buy a bar of Pacha soap, a portion of the proceeds support projects like ours.

Through our partnership with Pacha Soap Co., Foothold hires local groups to handcraft soap for their community schools. Instead of sending bars of soap overseas, Pacha is supporting the local indigenous and vulnerable communities Foothold serves while utilizing locally available resources.

Before training any group or charitable small business, Foothold makes sure they have a viable business plan. We help them identify available resources, assess the market demand as well as market prices and provide micro loans when necessary. Our first question to the group, is “How will you survive when we are gone?” These conversations set the tone for our work and help us identify groups or charitable businesses that are a good match for us to work.

Through our partnership with Pacha Soap Co., Foothold hires local groups to handcraft soap for their community schools. Instead of sending bars of soap overseas, Pacha is supporting the local indigenous and vulnerable communities Foothold serves while utilizing locally available resources.

Before training any group or charitable small business, Foothold makes sure they have a viable business plan. We help them identify available resources, assess the market demand as well as market prices and provide micro loans when necessary. Our first question to the group, is “How will you survive when we are gone?” These conversations set the tone for our work and help us identify groups or charitable businesses that are a good match for us to work.

She named her initial line of soap after our first women’s group, the Namelok ladies group. Namelok (pronounced Nam-uh-lock) means “something sweet” in the Maasai language. The Namelok Women’s Group live in a semi-arid land in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro. They chose their name because they told us, “Where God is, you will find something sweet.”

In the US Cherie makes hand-crafted soap for sale to help support soap initiatives in addition to our WASH (Water Sanitation & Hygiene goals). You can purchase her hand-crafted soap to support Foothold’s work as well as Pacha’s soap directly at our store. It is also available for sale in historic downtown Chillicothe, Ohio at Kindly and at Julie’s Shop on Paint.

This amazing group of women started with a $350 microloan.  As their soap shop grew, they started new projects providing clean water and sanitary pads.  They are the only group known in their are who has built their own permanent structure.  Their soap is in such demand that it’s often sold before it is even finished curing!

Visit our blog page to read the incredible story of Namelok ladies group as well as the story behind our partnership with Pacha Soap that began with a friend’s wedding and stay updated as these projects progress.

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