The Lovin' Soap Project

The Lovin' Soap Project is a grassroots initiative dedicated to ensuring women and girls have a means to overcome inequality and benefit from economic development. We teach the micro-business of artisan soap making through workshops in impoverished communities.

We are raising funds to cover our travel expenses to Haiti on August 28th, and to provide a new group of women organized through Haitian Artisans for Peace International with enough supplies to learn soap making and begin producing soap. Funds raised above our goal amount will help with expenses to provide marketing and follow up support until the soap making business is handed off and the women are operating independently.




This teaching trip is to Mizak and Jacmel, where family income ranges from less than $1.00 to about $1.50 per day, and the main source of survival is bartering of local produce. As you can see, every dollar raised allows us to make a big difference. Any donation amount helps, and we are so grateful for your support!

We invite you to learn more about the Lovin' Soap Project, what inspired us, and our model for change:

Did You Know

Women make up 50% of the world's population, and 70% of the world's poor? Since 2009, 7 million children have died due to hygiene-preventable disease? Of the 72 million children worldwide not enrolled in primary school, 50 million are girls?

The Problem

The in-kind donation model is doing more harm than good. Development aid, which includes food donations, clothing donations and other types of in-kind donations, distort local markets, devastate local farmers and entrepreneurs, and further undercut the economy of the communities they are intended to serve. The inability to clothe, house, or feed a family is only a symptom of the real problem"“ extreme poverty. Development aid and in-kind donations from well-meaning companies don't solve the issue, instead acting as a Band-Aid for a system in need of long-term solutions for economic development. Our neighbors need a different kind of help.

How We're Different

Our model provides skill training and support through soap making workshops until independent operation is possible, and the soap making business is handed off creating self-sufficiency. The soaps produced both in the teaching workshops, and after the business is operated independently of the Lovin' Soap Project, are purchased, sold through our website, specialty retailers, and other outlets, and 100% of the proceeds are reinvested into the project. There are two lines of soap for purchase:

Buy One Teach One

Education and business ownership are concentrated in men's hands throughout the developing world. This leaves many women to struggle for equality and means to support their families. Each bar of soap purchased teaches a woman the micro-business of soap making through a Lovin' Soap Project workshop.

An Added Benefit

The Lovin' Soap Project provides women with the skills and knowledge to make soap as a micro-business to support their families. As a result, women gain the ability to use excess soap from the process for their own family's hygiene. In addition, with their comprehension of how soaps are formulated, what types of ingredients are necessary, and the instruction provided on local sourcing, inexpensive yet effective soaps can be made outside their business to help maintain basic health and sanitation.

The Best Gift of All

Handouts of shoes or other goods will eventually wear out leaving the recipient in the same desperate situation. By teaching a skill and having a strategy for business handoff, women can feed their families, achieve a sense of dignity, and create a legacy to pass on to future generations including knowledge of the trade, and most of all, prosperity.

Thank you for your support!