Soap--it represents the ability to feel clean--something that eludes the hundreds of women suffering from obstetric fistula every year in Uganda. Fistula, a child birthing injury virtually unheard of in richer nations, is a hole that forms between a woman's birth canal and rectum or bladder, often leaving her incontinent. 

Uganda has the third highest rates of fistula in the world, and many factors, including poverty, lack of access to maternal healthcare, stigma preventing women from reaching out for help, and barriers to women's participation in development, force women who suffer from obstetric fistula to live in silence, shame, and isolation. 

TERREWODE http://terrewodeug.org/ brings fistula out of the shadows by administering programs in villages to help identify women with fistula, funding fistula repair surgery, and providing post-operative care and training so fistula survivors can generate income and break cycles of poverty. 

When Alice Emasu, the Founder of TERREWODE and fistula survivors saw a bar of goat milk soap brought to them as a gift from Oregon, they immediately said, "We can make this ourselves!" These are resilient people; they knew they could make soap locally, using all natural goat milk and shea butter. Even more, they knew this income generating project might be a way to raise international awareness about obstetric fistula in order to help other suvivors as well.    

Thus, the seed of Soap by Fistula Survivors was sown. With milk goats from Heifer International,  with introductory training from designer and soap-maker, Dardi Troden, and photographer, Joni Kabana, and with assistance from Oregon State University's humanitarian engineering program, the women have already started making beautiful soap in experimental batches. The next step is to turn this wonderful project into a sustainable income generating activity to improve the livelihoods of the women. MAPLE Microdevelopment http://www.maplemicrodevelopment.org/, also Oregon-based, is working with the women and TERREWODE to design a sustainable business plan and has secured an international buyer for a pilot project once this joyful venture meets all quality standards and secures all necessary licenses for distribution.

Here's how you can help: Your donation will help cover costs incurred by the women, TERREWODE, and MAPLE Microdevelopment to produce and test the soap, package the soap, develop the necessary distribution route, pay expenses related to research, quality control, and licensing, and build capacities in financial literacy and entrepreneruship. Anything you can contribute will help Uganda's most vulnerable women create their own business and raise international awareness necessary to eradicate obstetric fistula--one of the most extreme consequences of poverty for women. Please help us make Soap by Fistula Survivors a reality!  Let's celebrate these women by making their amazing project possible!  

$3,000 will help cover needs for the pilot of Soap by Fistula Survivors including: materials to make enough soap for one more test batch and the first shipment, training for the women in financial literacy and business management, creation of the distribution channel, and packaging and initial shipping costs so the women can prove the concept of their new business. Proving this concept will enable the women to gain additional financing and bring their handmade, all-natural soap, and their own stories, to others around the world who might share their passion to eradicate fistula.  

* A note about rewards: As a donor, you will receive newsletter updates, with pictures, so you can follow the progress of this project and its impact on the lives of fistula survivors. Other rewards listed on this page show how donations will be used to advance the project. TERREWODE and the women will use half of the total donations received to help cover costs related to production and quality control. MAPLE and the women will use half of the total donations to conduct market research, to develop the distribution channel, and to provide education in financial literacy and business development so fistula survivors can manage and sustain this business to improve their livelihoods.

There are plenty of challenges to building a successful social business, but the strength of this project is that it is led by the women themselves and that it incorporates partner organizations all working within their areas of expertise to establish this sustainable business. Some of the welcome challenges we anticipate include:

• Conforming to various national and international regulations for soap exports and imports.
• Making the business sustainable and profitable for the women and their communities.
• Scaling the business to meet demand.
• Organizing the energies and talents of potential supporters worldwide.