The goal of women empowerment could be achieved through different ways, but their economic independence is pivotal in order to reduce their dependence to their husbands and their families. This is why VIN supports woman by helping them to build their business. The idea of the liquid soap making workshop comes from this theoretical basis, as soap is a common good, whose ingredients are cheap and easy to find. Yet, the procedure to make soap isn’t too complicated and it doesn’t take long time, so women can also manage their everyday duties.
On August, VIN has conducted two different liquid soap making training for different groups of women located respectively in Jitpurphedi( Kisandol-four women groups) and Kavresthali (Bhandarigaun – four women group). Although both the groups are quite large, they are very different one from the other: the Jitpurphedi group is an agriculture cooperative members which enables its members to borrow money for the purposes stated in the cooperative constitution. The Kavresthali group isn’t a cooperative, but it’s based on social connections. However, both the places groups of women have seen the potentialities that a business can offer them and have decided to put effort and dedicate part of their time to develop this project.
It was amazing watching these women working together for mixing lye, salt and caustic soda in order to produce liquid soap. The training group produced just a little quantity of soap, so they decided to distribute it among the members at first for testing quality, instead of selling. They have the plan to take as a business of liquid soap production and sell it in local market.
The creation of women networks and the establishment of a business isn’t enough to make it works. There is also the need to provide them a theoretical knowledge that helps women to better manage the business and sell out the product. For this purpose, VIN asked a volunteer to explain the basic concept of marketing to the two groups and how they can apply them to the soap making.
Published on: 09 Sep 2018