First, the home visits were difficult because hearing the stories of hardship and challenge that the girls in Ngombe Compound face was a reality check. We know that 2/3rds of the children we work with are full orphans (having lost both parents), and over half are HIV Positive, but those are just statistics. When you go and visit the children in their home, see the situation, and realize how desperate the circumstances are, it’s honestly overwhelming.

But we also heard that the soap we provide in the Sew Powerful Purse Program is used up very quickly. We knew it probably was – but hearing the details made us realize we have a problem. The soap we provide basically lasts girls one period, so after the first month of use, it’s gone. Each bar costs us .59 cents.

As I sat in home-after-home hearing the same soap problem – the weight of the challenge sank in. After one of the particularly challenging visits I said to the team, “we’ve got to figure out this soap problem.”

But to meet the need we’d need to find a way to deliver a small bar of soap every month to the purse beneficiaries. This year alone, that would mean 3,700 bars of soap per month. Next year, that would be 6,000 bars per month.

6,000 bars of soap a month is 72,000 for the full year. If we reach our 2020 goal and assist 20,000 beneficiaries, that would require 240,000 bars of soap a year. That’s a huge amount of soap!

Here is where the story gets interesting…

On our last day in Lusaka we came down to the hotel lobby for breakfast and we saw a former colleague of mine. We used to work together a long time ago. We greeted her and asked what she was doing in Lusaka and she said,

“I’m here to talk to Esther (our Sew Powerful Program director) about a soap project.”

Soap project?

“Yes”, she said. As it turns out she had come with a proposal she wanted to discuss for an ongoing soap project. Long story short, she has access to a source of soap scraps that can be re-purposed. Melted and re-used.

To do it right, it will take equipment, space, and staffing. But the bars could be used for the purse program, the school, the clinic, or even sold in the community as an income generating activity.

I was speechless. My mind quickly flashed back to the math I had already done. So I asked,

“how much soap are we talking about?”

She said, “more than you could possibly ever use.” 

Wow!

A few minutes later Esther arrived to greet us for the day and take us to the Needs Care school. On the way to the school, we discussed the new project idea. At the school we sat down with our guest and worked through the details. A plan began to emerge, led by Esther of course. In short:

• We’ll be launching a new soap making team. This will be our 3rd “Purposeful Product” (school uniforms, reusable hygiene pads, and now soap). Of course, we should also add food from the farm to our list of Purposeful Products, so we are now up to four!
• Technically the team won’t be making the soap, it’s just melting and cutting it into small bars. But their mission will be to make a massive amount of soap each month.
• Sew Powerful will fund the operation – in exchange for soap.
• Esther has 80 volunteer Caregivers that have worked together for many years in support of the HIV/AIDS crisis. She is going to ask them to be helpers in the program and assist in making the soap.
• We will use our current soap budget (the .59 cents per bar that we currently have budgeted) to hire several highly motivated school moms (or dads) and ask them to help set up and run the program. This will create new jobs – and expand the Sew Powerful / Needs Care school team. As the program expands more team members will be added. These jobs can be done by people who are not literate, which allows us to include some of the most desperate people in the community.
• We’ll work to produce enough soap to fully supply the Sew Powerful Purse beneficiaries, and begin selling the extra soap in the local community under the name So Powerful Soap. Until we can come up with a better name.
• We will work to invest in this new soap team and expand it over time – creating an ongoing income source that can assist in funding the school programs.

Wow!

We Need Your Help: The program is not up and running yet! During our brainstorming conversations, we came up with a list of start-up expenses to get the program going. We need roughly $1,500 to launch the new soap team. We’d love your support: www.sewpowerful.org/donate

Give a gift of any amount here

When you contribute – you’ll be helping us launch an exciting new chapter in the Sew Powerful ministry story. Only God could orchestrate this type of amazing provision. He loves the children of Ngombe more than we could ever imagine – and He’s got good things planned for these precious children.

Honored to serve together,

Jason, Cinnamon, Esther & the entire Sew Powerful team!

Ps. upon hearing this someone wrote, “Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear.” a verse found in Isaiah 65:24. What an amazing promise that God made long ago – that He is still fulfilling today!

P.P.S. please note, all extra funds raised will be used to support the Sew Powerful Purse program – and directly benefit the children of Zambia.