Lakhani shares a light moment with staff at Eco-Soap Bank–which employs local women
Thanks to Kathleen.
We don’t have to wait for the Reval to begin projects.
How hotel soap can save lives
Megan Dunn,
For many Cambodians, a bar of soap is a luxury they cannot afford.
Yet children living in rural areas are vulnerable to disease simply because they are unable to wash their hands.
According to UNICEF, diarrheal diseases alone account for one in five deaths of Cambodian children age 5 and younger, largely due to poor hygiene practices.
CNN Hero Samir Lakhani
In 2014, as a college student, Samir Lakhani saw the issue firsthand while volunteering in a Cambodian village.
“I remember quite vividly a mother bathing her newborn in a basin filled with laundry powder and water,” said Lakhani, now 24. “It’s an image I’ll never get out of my mind.”
httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqZscqB2wlk
Lakhani was staying in a hotel in Cambodia, and he realized that one solution to the problem was being thrown away: barely-used bars of soap.
So, he figured out a way to save this soap and give it a second life.
While still attending the University of Pittsburgh, Lakhani started the Eco-Soap Bank. The nonprofit recycles discarded bars of soap from hotels in Cambodia and distributes it to people in need.
While there are similar programs that recycle hotel soap, Lakhani’s focus in Cambodia is unique.
Today, the organization has four recycling centers across the country, providing jobs to 35 local women. The used bars are sanitized and remolded into new bars or melted down into liquid soap.
So far, more than 650,000 people have benefited from the group’s soap and hygiene education.
“What I love most is that we are killing three birds with one stone,” Lakhani said. “We are keeping waste out of landfills, employing locals and spreading soap all over the country.”
CNN’s Meghan Dunn spoke with Lakhani about his work. Below is an edited version of their conversation.
CNN: Why is it difficult for rural Cambodians to access soap?
Samir Lakhani: First is affordability. If you’re earning only $1.50 every single day, you’re not going to spend $1 of your daily wage on an imported bar of luxury soap. They’re going to prioritize feeding their families. And if they can afford soap, they will pick the least expensive option, which is usually detergent, which is so harmful and toxic on the skin.
The second reason is access. The demand is so low, shopkeepers and local markets have stopped stocking soap. The last reason is, very simply, because many Cambodians don’t really understand where illness and disease come from, they don’t really take the appropriate steps towards mitigating those effects. And that includes use of bar soap.
CNN Heroes: From hotel soap to Eco-Soap
CNN: Eco-Soap Bank’s work is based in Cambodia and largely run by Cambodians. What are the benefits of being in the same country you’re serving?=
Lakhani: (It) has a ton of benefits, the first one being able to very quickly respond to outbreaks, such a cholera and impetigo and other things like that. Almost immediately, we’re able to use our stockpile of soap and critically address whatever crisis is present.
Another overlooked benefit is the opportunity to be able to hire local deserving employees who can immensely benefit from steady employment from our program.
CNN: What’s it like for the women you hire?
Lakhani: Our soap recyclers are all local women who were striving to find some source of reliable, predictable incomes. They face immense hardship. And unless someone is willing to invest in their future, it’s hard to crawl out of that. The women that we employ currently have been able to provide for their entire families, pay down debt and resume education for their children.