KENYA: soap-making project 'changing lives'

Women have been given limited access to production assets but they are
capable of performing a substantial role in economic development as Vincent
Agoya found out recently in Embu's Runyenjes division.
Vincent Agoya
Kathangu, Embu

When 56-year old Rhoda Gichiku speaks, she does it with authority.
From outside, her Kathangu village in Embu, some 130 kilometres northeast of
Nairobi would pass as any other African village, desperate, struggling and
failing to harness local resources.
But Kathangu's women have a different story - and it is the story of how
some 26 women have joined hands in an Avocado soap-making project, a
grassroots' initiative that is changing their lives.
At Kathangu women wake up earlier than men and are the true unsung heroines.
They also perform twice as much work as men and are increasingly becoming
the icons of sustainable development through their soap-making project.
"We are now empowered", says Gichiku, through an interpreter. "That is why
we can afford a smile".
What would have been a bleak, desperate life brought about by lack of
markets for their avocado fruits has been turned into an opportunity.
"We learnt it from extension officers that we could harness our local
resources and make a living out of it", says Gichiku who heads the women's
project.
Ever since the project started two years ago "we have had a history of
success upon success", says Gichiku, through an interpreter - her broad
exposing a gap between her font teeth as she speaks.
It all started when a group of women approached the agriculture office in
Embu for advice on viable projects to improve their lot. And through a rural
extension programme, National Agriculture and Livestock Programme (NALEP),
which is funded by Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), they
learnt to rely on the avocado fruit , previously going to waste for lack of
markets, to make soap, which they later sell locally to generate the
much-needed income.
"We were in great need to come up with a solution for improving our living
standards which had been affected by dwindling income from coffee", she
says.
IN Embu coffee had for years been a major cash cop but the global fall of
coffee prices has made poor farmers look for other solutions - the soap
making initiative is one of the most successful.
And the soap making project had a humble beginning.
"It was first a Merry -go -round in which members contributed Shillings 50
each but we had to think of better ways of generating income, " says Gichiku
a mother of six. "The Merry- go-round 's purpose was to generate income for
home improvement. We also did not want to continue looking up to men to
solve our problems," she adds with an air of satisfaction.
Like other parts of Kenya women in Embu form the bulk of the poor and their
condition is made worse because of limited access to resources and
information.
With most of them in the villages their contribution to development goes
unnoticed and sometimes is trivialised. According to a Poverty Assessment
paper 200I, only a paltry 4% of women in Kenya have title deeds to property.
"We formed the group to assist each other but later approached the
agriculture office for suggestion and advice for agriculturally viable
projects which we saw would give us better chances of improving our lives, "
says Gichiku.
Although the first aim of the women group was to educate locals on the use
of indigenous foods like arrowroots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and cassava,
they group has decided to tap any resource available. Today the women are
able to prepare jam from paw-paw and fresh juice from passion fruits- all
common plants grown in Embu.
And that empowerment has its implications in the domestic circles.
"Many women now have a say in the community and men have started to view us
as partners in development and not only people interested in reaping the
benefits of their labour. My husband for instance started adoring me with
respect and would not be so concerned about my where about as most of the
time I would be engaged in the project," says Josephine Wanja Nyaga, a
founder member of the group.
Before extension officers advised the women to use local resources, fruits
like avocado could go to waste in the farms.
Today, every morning, Wanja and her colleagues would descend on farms and
collect overripe avocado, which has fallen to the ground.
Mostly not edible, the fruits would have gone to waste, but not in Kathangu
village where they are the source of income. They also use unripe ones to
make cooking oil which doubles as a hair care product as well.
According to Julia Wanja, "used on hair avocado oil has the same effect as
most expensively bought cosmetic products".
She says that about 1000 fruits of avocado must be used to extract a jar
full of oil. The women sell it at Shs 500 a jar.
"The task of making soap using avocado fruits is laborious," says Nyaga a
member of the Kathangu women's soap making project.
And so is the oil extraction. Unripe avocado fruit is cut into pieces then
let to dry. Its high fat content enable it to produce liquid oil when wrung
inside sack," say the experts - a simple technology that has gone a long way
in showing the women how they can use the fruit as a beautify product.
In soap making the laborious task of collecting ripe and fallen avocado from
all around farms starts early in the morning and comes to an end late into
the evening when molten avocado mixed with caustic soda and perfume is put a
side to cool into soap and later packaged in polythene wrappers ready for
the market.
"When we have collected the ripe fruits from the garden, they are mashed and
then sieved through a wire mesh to make it fine and free from any particles.
This paste is then mixed with cooking fat or preferably coconut oil until
you get a homogenous mix," explains Nyaga .
To this mixture, she explains, 100 mls of caustic soda is added, the mixture
hardens with each addition. The mixture is then boiled over an oven of
slow burning log fire. This is akin to the semi boiling technique used in
soap making.
The mixture is continually stirred and later taken off and abandoned to cool
off. "But you have to be careful not to let it cool completely lest it
hardens completely and goes to waste", says Nyaga.
The cooling takes two weeks depending on the weather.
The soap is sold locally and is said to be very popular with men who use it
as they shave their beards. "It has a smoothening effect and rivals
industrially manufactured toilets soaps," the women say.
The project is not only transforming lives in a rural village but has
enabled women to become partners in development. From the finance got from
the sale of the avocado soap, they have purchased dairy goats and are being
reared at a nearby farm. They also plan to buy a piece of and which they
want to set aside to plant fruit to sustain their project.
Agricultural extension officers in the area say that the project is
sustainable and will play a significant role in the domestic economy.
"Majority of women in rural areas though suffer in poverty having found
themselves in the rural areas where agriculture and livestock production s
still controlled by men," says Francis Kariuki. "This is a chance to be
recognised. (Rights Features)