Clean Water Bolivia Project #9871

Safe Drinking Water for 40 schools in Bolivia

by SODIS Foundation

Safe Drinking Water for 40 schools in Bolivia

Project Report | Aug 14, 2015
My first soap production experience

By Jeremy Maes | Project leader

We got soap !

Dear supporter,

In this report we want to share with you some experiences and activities that had a volunteer working in the school on the soap Project.

-- My first soap production experience --

"As I’m neither a chemist nor an economist, I proposed that I could help looking for solutions together and discussing possible problems. I went the next day and met de teachers responsible for the manufacture of soaps.

The teachers listed the ingredients and steps of production and the problems they have when the result is not good. They said the consistency of the soaps sometimes is very dry and sometimes is too wet.

Ok so let’s start!

We put pots and a kitchen, the bicimáquina, buckets, kitchen utensils and some goggles and gloves for protection in the playground of the school.

Some students helped lay the butter in pots, and the teachers did the rest of the works. They heated butter, mixed it with caustic soda, dyes and aroma put on mass and mixed all of it with the bicimáquina for about an hour.

And Tada!

In the end they poured the soap in small buckets and on a tray. So the soap can dry few days.

Then I went back but the soaps were still very wet and we decided to leave them in the buckets

Finally it took more than 3 weeks … It was clear they were not satisfied with the production as it was at this time … but we got soap!! “

Thanks to the volunteer’s help, we are now working to improve some steps of the soap production:

Involving more student in the process of making soap
Improving safety in the manufacture of soap, four gloves and goggles are not enough and caustic soda is very toxic
The recipe: the teachers produce as they have in mind. That's fine, but when would like to improve something, they do not know how it should be.

But at the same time we have to keep in mind that, this is a rural school with not a lot of financial resources but they use what they have. Also providing hand washing a key moment and hygiene.

We thank you in advance for your support. And feel free to reach us if you have some questions and comments!

With warm greetings from the whole project team,

Mixing everything

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May 12, 2015
In Bolivia, one must have patience...

By Jeremy Maes | Project leader

Tiquipaya schools students

In Bolivia, one must have patience...

Tiquipaya is an eminently ecological village and for more than three years has been implemented a productive partner project called "productive unit with committed families”.

In the vision of this productive unit, the school wants to implement its soap factory with a small chemistry laboratory, in order to develop their own production protocol, based on laboratory experiments.

To this purpose, the school needs about 200 USD to have its own laboratory. You may think it's not a lot of money, but for a school in a rural area, it is.

Why a laboratory?:

- To increase the quality of the soap

- In order to have natural fragrances

- To be able to produce more

- To no longer pay analysis to other laboratorios

As written in the last report it was expected that the Municipality of Tiquipaya would be responsible in providing the other schools in the Municipality. This idea follows as the goal of the schools, but everything takes time and one must have patience... Recently we came out of an election season that means it’s necessary to come back to the leaders and that takes time and one must have patience...

We are also looking at the possibility of doing some workshops on the development of shampoo and / or artisanal creams. Always in the focus of: hand washing and personal hygiene.

We are happy because the school has since May a volunteer (supported by the SODIS Foundation), working on the sustainability of the project and the corners of hand washing.

We thank you in advance for your support. And feel free to reach us if you have some questions and comments!

With warm greetings from the whole project team,

The "bicimaquina"

soap drying process

different shape of soap

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Feb 11, 2015
Soap and more soap

By Jeremy Maes | Project leader

Bicimaquina - the bike machine

Dear supporter,

Last year have been training teachers and some older students in the production of an ecological soap, helping decrease disease by washing hands in key moments.

“Washing hands with soap and water has been and remains one of the most effective cost interventions against disease transmission in public health. The promotion of proper hand washing with soap and water, can save many lives.

Each year, about 3.5 million children, die without celebrate its fifth birthday from preventable diseases, mainly diarrhea and acute respiratory diseases. Adopting the habit of washing hands with soap and water before eating and after using the toilet, can avoid almost half the number of deaths due to diarrhea, and nearly a quarter of deaths from acute respiratory diseases.”

With the help of two volunteers from USA (Aaron and Hannah), we were able to build a “bicimáquina” a bike-machine.

This machine is manufactured with recycled materials (old bycicle, iron pipes ...) and assembled by a local artisan. Thanks to this machine, it is possible to increase the quantity and quality of soap, and have more financial input.

This soap is called "el Grillito" - the cricket - and is manufactured 100% ecologically.

Its slogan: "Purchasing this soap it can save many children from infection or estomacles disease"

Some older students have created a micro enterprise within the school, thanks to the support and suppervision of the SODIS Foundation, now they are able to sell soap to students and parents.

The next step would be to sell the soap to the municipality of Tiquipaya who would be responsible in providing the other schools in the comunity!

We are very enthusiastic and positive about this project carried out by these older students with great success

We thank you in advance for your support. And feel free to reach us if you have some questions and comments !

With warm greetings from the whole project team,

Jeremy Maes

El Grillito - soap box

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