Resettled women in Ancuabe and Chiúre trained for soap manufacturing

Twenty or so women living in the resettlement centres in the districts of Ancuabe and Chiúre, in Cabo Delgado province, have now been trained to manufacture handmade soap for marketing and domestic use, and other purposes. The women, who have been displaced due to the terrorism afflicting the northern region of Cabo Delgado province, have benefited from training in "home-made" soap manufacturing, organised by the IDP WASH project, funded by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The training, which was held last July, reflects the project's objective to support and promote good hygiene practices in the resettlement centres, prevent water-borne diseases and reduce the levels of dependence of resettled families to these products. Currently, a significant number of the displaced people hosted in the resettlement centres are dependent on hygiene kits which is distributed irregularly by several organizations providing humanitarian assistance in Cabo Delgado, including HELVETAS.

The training, which ran for a week in the two districts, also covered topics such as entrepreneurship and business management. At the end of the session, 240 units of 74-gram soap were manufactured and a minimum cost of 25 Mtn per item was established, with HELVETAS providing all the raw materials used for manufacturing.