World's largest soap to be made in Kenya

Keywords: Kenya

By Rawlings Otieno

The world's largest soap will soon be manufactured in Kenya in an aggressive effort to promote hand washing.

The 13-tonne multi-purpose bar soap, which comes in a blue colour, will be made from a collection of pieces of leftover soaps.

Once the giant soap is moulded, it will be taken to the National Museum for public viewing. After that, it will be cut into pieces and distributed to schools.

Already officials from the Guinness World Records have been invited by the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation to check out the specifications of the soap, which is expected to be 1.5m high, 2.2m wide and 4.6m long.

Dubbed the ¡®Sopo Campaign¡¯, it is an initiative championed by Unicef and the World Bank¡¯s Water and Sanitation Programme and the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation.

Don¡¯t wash hands

John Kariuki, the deputy chief public health officer at the Ministry, says a majority of primary school children do not wash their hands mainly before meals and after visiting the toilets.

Those who do, don¡¯t use soap, either because of ignorance or the perception that clean water is adequate to wash hands.

A pupil learns how to wash hands with soap. The hand washing campaign started last year by the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation has reached more than five million children. [Photos: Maxwel Agwanda/ Standard]

This comes amid concerns that more people continue to die from diarrhoea, yet according to the Ministry, more than 97 per cent of households in Kenya have soap, but it is used for other purposes other than hand washing.

Kariuki says that with improved hygiene practices, there will be less diarrhoea incidences among children, hence less absenteeism from school, less healthcare costs for the families, and better academic performance in school.

"We hope eventually to reach all the children and households in Kenya. However, in this campaign we are targeting schools and their communities in 20 priority programme counties particularly in northern Kenya," explains Kariuki.

Sopo can be used to rapidly promote hand washing with soap within the wider hygiene promotion strategy.

According to a study conducted by the ministry and the World Bank in 2007, only five per cent of Kenyans wash hands consistently with soap. But following campaigns to promote hand washing over the past many months, more people are now using soaps.

The ministry says more than five million children are now washing their hands properly.

For example, pupils in Gangre Primary School in Rachuonyo District have embraced the campaign and have enthusiastically ¡®owned¡¯ the hand-washing campaign with more than 580 pupils involved.

The children have become ambassadors, spreading the message to other schools to follow the same trend.

Peninah Ochieng¡¯, a teacher in charge of sanitation at the school, says her pupils wash hands every time they leave the latrines.

This, she says, has been achieved by making sure that a 20-litre container of water is placed at the entrance of the latrines with pieces of bar soap every day and refilled twice daily.

To sustain, the process, the school has also started some small income generating projects like a kitchen garden, and tree nursery to get money to buy soaps.

Other schools that are participating include Ragumo and Got Odingo primary schools in Kisumu, and Ramba Primary School in Rarieda.

It is Sopo¡¯s belief that proper hand washing with soap will have a major impact on health by reducing the incidence of diarrhoea, and respiratory infection.

The campaign is being rolled out in the form of road shows in strategic market areas, interactive street engagement in towns and trading centres as well as educational door-to-door hand-washing demonstrations.

The Standard Group, through The Standard, KTN and Radio Maisha, will encourage children and communities countrywide to wash hands with soap.

Besides Unicef, other organisations supporting the initiative are PZ Cussons, Signon Freight and National Museums of Kenya.

Soap keeps death at bay

The ¡®Sopo Largest Bar Soap¡¯ initiative promotes washing of hands with soap from the current five per cent to 30 per cent by December.

Unicef and other partners have already sponsored the campaign up to Sh17 million.

While soap is important for washing hands to keep germs at bay, many households don¡¯t use it; instead, soap is for other uses such as bathing and washing clothes. Just plain water does it for many people.

Washing hands using soap is not a culture in many households.

The initiative is aimed at engaging children and communities to produce the world¡¯s largest soap bar through a ¡®progressing marathon¡¯ that grows as each stage of the journey unfolds, and as each community reached adds another layer to the engagement of children and production of the soap.

The soap will be cast into a mould that will be made out of a combination of steel and wood.

The required messages on the soap will be incorporated into the mould and it will appear as raised lettering on the actual soap.

Soap on wheels

The mould is proposed to be on wheels so that it can be pulled out of the production area when casting is complete.

Since the world¡¯s biggest soap is envisaged to be in excess of 13 tonnes at casting, the wheels will be handy to load it on to the truck.

The soap is expected to be 1.5m high, 2.2m wide and 4.6 m long.

Lack of soap, water shortage in highly populated schools and lack of hand washing facilities in most schools are the main causes of waterborne diseases and has been blamed for hindering the objective of hand washing.

Sopo Largest Bar Soap acts as a platform to draw attention to the hand washing initiative in Kenya.

The campaing targets children because they are likely to influence many more people to wash their hands in their communities.

In October 2010, more than 18,000 children mainly drawn from 20 schools in Dagoretti and Kikuyu area, and 1,050 adults washed their hands at the same place ¨C at Thirime Primary School in Kikuyu.

They used 21,000 bars of soap and 10,000 litres of water.

Washing hands with soap is crucial to Kenyans as the country loses nearly 30,000 lives annually to diarrhoeal diseases.

Health reports cite lack of proper hand washing as one of the major causes of the many deaths.

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