Some 2.6 million bars of soap are discarded daily in U.S. hotels. Can you imagine what the world figure can be?
Since 2009, activist and entrepreneur Derreck Kayongo, from Uganda, created the Global Soap Project , a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, reprocessing and turning into new bars the soaps that are "thrown away" in hotels in the United States.
In an interview with CNN, Kayongo said the goal of this work is to help fight disease and combat child mortality in poor countries by improving access to basic cleaning.
Every year more than two million children die from diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid fever and cholera, "by putting a bar of soap in the hands of each child this situation can be reduced by 40%," the businessman said on CNN.
The project is currently supported by nearly 300 U.S. hotels, as well as by companies that handle the entire process: initially a sample of the recycled soap is examined to verify that it is free of pathogens, then it is reprocessed and distributed free of charge in 18 developing countries.
According to Kayongo, every day the number of hotels that support this project increases, as well as the number of volunteers that join the cause. The goal for this year is to make and distribute one million bars of soap.
In 2011 Derreck Kayongo was a finalist for the Hero of the Year award, promoted by the international news network CNN.
