Use Soap to Empower 60 Rape Survivors in Mali

This is the first report on our project to help survivors of war rape in Mali to produce shea butter soap. We are working with sixty survivors this year. All fled from violence in the north of Mali following the war in 2012 and have been struggling to recover from their ordeal. Many lost their husbands. Our soap project seeks to help.

First, how and where is the soap being made? The 60 survivors are all spending six months at a center in Bamako, where they are learning how to make and sell soap; make clothes and produce embroidered designs. The center is managed by our Malian partner Sini Sanuman ("Healthy Tomorrow"), a leading Malian NGO that advocates for women's rights. We launched the trainings in 2015 and found that the women were capable and anxious to learn a useful skill. By the end of 2015 they were making and selling soap - Sini Savon -  in the markets of Bamako.

As can be seen from the photos, soap-making is hard work! The women wear masks to protect them from the fumes given off by cooking the soap. The soap is then poured into a mold; dried; and smoothed by hand. The lower quality soap is packaged and sold in the markets. Higher quality shea butter soap is bagged.

Our goal is to sell 5,000 bars of shea butter soap in Mali and 500 bars of shea soap in the US. We are seeking $2,500 through Global Giving to cover the cost of the ingredients (oil, soda, etc). Your donations are going straight into a bank account that will be managed by Aissata Toure, one of three hand-working trainers at the Bamako center.

So far in 2016 we have raised a combined $573 for Aissata and her trainees. Of this, $230 has been pledged by you, our friends, through Global Giving. The remaining $343 has been raised by Refilwe Moahi, a graduate of Brandeis University who worked for us in Mali in 2015 as a Peace Fellow and helped to design the project. Refilwe, a citizen of Botswana, is shown in the photo with survivors.

The Bamako team will now use your donation to purchase ingredients and produce soap. We will report back on progress in our next report. With your help, we are off to a good start! Thank you for believing.