Making soap: – We turned a problem into an opportunity
The lack of soap became an increasing problem in the Jewi refugee camp in Gambella, Ethiopia. Now the refugees earn money by making soap, and the population has access to cheap soap.
24‑year‑old Nyakuon Tut Kai fled from South Sudan to Ethiopia 11 years ago. – We had nothing and lived on food from the UN. After I joined this, I started earning money, she says.
The clean scent fills the small room that has become a soap factory. The soap machine hums as the workers feed it with soap mixture. Out comes a strip of naturally colored soap, which is cut into large bars.
24‑year‑old Nyakuon Tut Kai smiles at the new wonder. The machine is brand new, but soap is also produced manually here.
She has worked here since 2023. Like the other refugees in this camp in Gambella, Ethiopia, she comes from South Sudan, which is not far away. She has now been a refugee in Ethiopia for 11 years. She was only a teenager when she fled with her older sister, who is eight years older, and three younger siblings.
– When I first came to Ethiopia, it was difficult. We had nothing and lived on food from the UN. After I joined this, I started earning money, she says.
Lack of soap
Soap production is one of several projects initiated by Norwegian Church Aid in Gambella, among other things to provide income for refugees.
In this camp alone, about 60,000 refugees from South Sudan live, but altogether in the camps in the area there are around 400,000. Many of them have lived here for over ten years now. They have received emergency aid and assistance from the UN and other organizations for many years.
The soap project started in 2023, and the idea arose from an ever‑growing problem in the area: lack of soap.
– The UN and aid organizations had initially provided soap free of charge to the refugees, but due to international funding cuts that began in 2021 and 2022, soap distribution was stopped by organizations. We saw the consequences: people became ill, says Bekalu Dagne Agize, who works specifically with the Gambella area for Norwegian Church Aid in Ethiopia.
Norwegian Church Aid works with sanitation and hygiene in many places, including here.
– We told people how important it was to wash. But when people had no access to soap, it was difficult. It is expensive to transport soap all the way here from, for example, the capital Addis. So, we came up with an idea: What if we start making soap with local resources?
Selling soap cheaply
Since there is no electricity grid in the camp, Norwegian Church Aid had to plan for manual soap production, explains Bekalu Dagne Agize. They recruited chemical experts to learn how soap could be made.
With support from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the pilot project started with 50 participants. Norwegian Church Aid provided the basic ingredients: caustic soda, water, and oil. The soaps are sold both to refugees inside the camp and to residents in the local community just outside.
The soaps are sold 40 percent cheaper than the market price. Soaps are also sold to organizations. With the income, participants buy new raw materials for more production and earn money for themselves and their families.
Sales of soap quickly exceeded all expectations, says Bekalu Dagne Agize.
– Demand became very high. With increased financing, we first acquired solar panels, and then we got the machine we now have. This allows us to increase production, he says.
Soap trading and similar initiatives have created better relations between the refugees and the host community outside the camp.
– For the refugees, it was difficult to leave the camp, because people there thought the refugees were taking resources from them. It even got to the point where people were killed because of it. With this livelihood activity, people come together. A social bond is created between these communities. As well as creating livelihoods and providing better health, it also contributes to peace and stability. The tensions we saw have decreased, he says.
Participants in the soap factory are selected based on various criteria. Particularly vulnerable people, such as single mothers, are prioritized, but there may also be other reasons. It is important that they can read, since they work with chemicals. They must also be interested in working. The project is now run in three areas.
Since its start, more than 200,000 soaps have been sold.
– We turned a problem into an opportunity, says Bekalu Dagne Agize at Norwegian Church Aid.
Pilot work
Margrethe Volden, country director for Norwegian Church Aid in Ethiopia, confirms the serious situation caused by global aid cuts. The consequences are also felt here in Gambella.
“We have an extremely dramatic situation in international aid, with severe cuts. Norwegian Church Aid is trying to make people less dependent on aid by providing jobs. Projects where we try to create lasting solutions for refugees are considered the way forward. What we are doing is pilot work, and it seems to be working,” says Volden.
“They See That We Contribute”
Nyakuon Tut Kai at the soap factory says that it is easier to be a refugee here than before.
– The permanent residents were not happy that we are here, but now they can buy soap from us at a good price. They say they would not have been able to afford soap if it weren’t for us. Now they see that we contribute to the community here, she says.
She has no children yet but has recently married. With the money she earns, she supports her three younger siblings and her older sister’s children.
Here in Ethiopia, she and her siblings have had to start a new life. Her mother died in South Sudan in 2012, and her father was in another part of the country. Therefore, she and her siblings had to flee without parents to Ethiopia. In 2022 she learned that her father had also died.
– For a long time I had nightmares about what happened to my parents, she says.
Now she looks ahead. She left school three years ago but wants to continue her education.
– I want to save money so I can go back to school. I want to become a midwife. I hope that my siblings can also get an education, she says.
