Little slivers that save lives

What do you do with the little slivers of soap from your shower? What happens to the millions of barely-used soaps left behind in hotel rooms all over the country? Ever thought about that?

Someone did — an organization called Clean the World.  

Every day in North America, thousands of hotels discard millions of pounds of soap and shampoo. These products often end up in already overflowing landfills and contaminate fragile groundwater systems. Impoverished people around the world die every day from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease because they have no soap. The death toll is staggering. Each year more than five million lives are lost to these diseases with the majority of deaths being among children less than 5 years old. Studies have shown that simple hand washing substantially reduces the spread of these diseases. Unfortunately, the essential items for proper hand washing are unobtainable for millions of people worldwide …. In an effort to prevent these needless deaths from occurring, Clean the World distributes recycled soap products, along with appropriate educational materials, to impoverished countries worldwide, and to domestic homeless shelters. (From their website)

APO at CTW: Helping change the world with slivers of soap

I learned about Clean the World when I received an email from Matt Gomez of CTW telling me that 19 JMU students from Alpha Phi Omega fraternity spent part of their spring break helping out there. JMU junior Amanda Schott, APO’s special projects chairwoman who organized the trip with the help of the Orlando United Way, explains:

“The organization collects used soap from hotels that would normally be thrown out when a traveler leaves.  This soap is then recycled. The process involves scraping off the dirt and particles from the soap using knives. (This is what we did while in Orlando). Then they sanitize the soap using a solution and allow it to dry. Next the soap goes to a steamer. Soap is porous so the steam removes all the bacteria that could be inside the soap. The soap is again dried and ground, so it can be remolded into new bars of soap and sent all over the world. Most of the children in these countries have no idea what soap is. Many diseases that are killing children could be prevented by just giving them soap so they can wash themselves. I find this to be a simple yet amazing cause. It just goes to show that even the smallest things can make the biggest difference in lives or even save lives.”

Small things indeed. Changing the world, one sliver of soap at a time. During their time in Orlando, the Dukes helped recycle some 4,250 bars of soap, enough to provide for 425 children for an entire month, according to Matt.

“In less than two years Clean the World has collected, recycled and distributed more than eight million bars of soap to children and families in the United States, Haiti and more than 40 countries. We get most of these soaps from our nearly 800 hotel partners in North America, but we also receive soap donations everyday from schools, organizations and individuals helping to advance our global ‘hygiene revolution.’ Washing with soap helps stop the spread of preventable diseases, such as pneumonia and cholera. Soap saves lives,” Matt says.

Amanda says she and her fellow APOs are interested in getting Harrisonburg establishments involved in donating their leftover soaps to CTW. APO is JMU’s only co-ed community service fraternity. On any given week they work with Special Olympics, the Salvation Army, SPCA or a kindergarten class in Harrisonburg. They also do monthly projects such as Adopt-A-Highway, Habitat for Humanity and canteens at ARC.

As impressive as this effort is, though, CTW is not the only project the APOs did while they were on spring break in Orlando. On Thursday I’ll tell you more about APO’s spring break trip — or better still, I’ll let Amanda tell you.  So stay tuned.

To see these Dukes in action at CTW, explore more at their blog: http://blog.cleantheworld.org/2011/03/put-up-your-dukes.html

And to learn more about Clean the World and how you can help, click here: http://www.cleantheworld.org/donate-money.asp