Soap making to improve hygiene and increase incomes of Gatovu MV residents

About this Project

Gatovu Integrated Development Program (IDP) Model village, located in Gataraga Sector of Musanze District, Northern province of Rwanda is home to 312 people living in 64 households with semi-detached houses of four housing units each. 32 of the households are female headed.  The village was constructed by the government of Rwanda in 2019 to provide shelter for the poor and vulnerable residents of Musanze district who were living in areas putting their lives at risk or lacked decent shelter. Other than the shelter provided by the government, residents of Gatovu model village do not have land or any other source of livelihood. They survive on finding casual work in the community such as farming for other people or working on construction sites. 

A group of residents of the model village have chosen to learn soap making so they can make and sell bar washing soap & liquid cleaning soap to model village residents and sorrounding communities. This project is expected to increase hygiene and sanitation in and around the model village as well as generate income for the model village residents from sale of soap.