Flood Herbal Soap-hot out of the molds!

So, it hasn’t been a week yet, but I am far too excited about the soap project to wait! We held the soap making workshops this past Tuesday and Wednesday and they were a great success. Not only do I feel much more bonded with the group, I’m more hopeful that this project will really enhance the group’s ability to attain their greater goal of opening a business. The past few days I have absorbed a lot. The undying generosity and kindness of the group, their willingness to learn and work hard, experiencing life in a rural village…a lot! The chairperson of the group gave me a beautiful basket she weaved with delicious passion fruit as a sign of gratitude for my work on the project, which is ironic, because they’ve done all the hard labor-I just facilitate…if that. Just an example of how ridiculously appreciative and sweet the Twezimbe group is.

The herbal soap is made!! The soap making instructor taught us all the different herbs we can find in the bush that help many different types of skin rashes and irritations-everything from scabies, rashes, ringworm...but we'll be selling it mainly to other HIV/AIDS patients at clinics as medicinal soap for the skin rashes and spots that are common among those who are positive. The group went out to the bush and within a couple hours collected 22 different herbs to include in the soap-everything from nimu tree, to avocado leaves, to papaya leaves to aloe vera (and many more with Lugandan names that I don’t know in English). Then we crushed the herbs, boiled them for hours, sieved the water, then melted pre made soap bars and candle wax into the water. The end product-herbal soap-sustainable, made with love, and ready to be sold.

The next step is packaging and selling, which we will be doing next week! Gotta finish up my grant and get on making some labels…which reminds me. The group insisted that I name the soap, but I refused because I insisted that the soap is their product and that they should name it-they decided it would be named “Flood.” So we’ll be selling “Flood” soap haha ohh still doesn’t get old. The group also gave me an Ugandan name, Nakalerro, still not sure what it means, but if I find out, I’ll let you know. I have to get back to work on my grant-otherwise I’ll be up all night (which I probably will be anyways), but I could not be doing it for a better project, so it’s all good.



grindin the herbs!

straining the herbs to use the herb water

mixing the soap and herb water





the (almost) final product!