Arich - a Voice for Women in Business

My South Sudanese friend, Arich, is beautiful! Her bright smile and shining eyes make you want to pull up a chair and learn all about the adventures in her life. 

 

Arich is a local partner with the IMB team here. She has her diploma in Business Administration and is 2 semesters away from finishing her degree. 

 

Arich heard of the Lord while she was in Kampala at the University. She became a believer then and a man named John began to disciple her. 

Twenty-twenty came and she left Kampala and moved to Arua. Arua has a small town feel to it, but it’s rather large for Northern Uganda. A friend told Arich to find J., an IMB missionary who helped form a collaborative coffee shop with other NGO’s in Arua. The coffee shop is a much need meeting place for locals, expats, missionaries, and friends. There are rooms available for teams to stay for a short while that to work in Arua. Arich spoke with J. about her need for working while she continued school. She turned in her CV (that’s her resume for my US friends) and was hired on the spot. Working at the coffee shop gave her a chance to put her diploma to use and was a great experience for her in the business world. 

 

Her work at the coffee shop allowed her to be a part of other local IMB ministries. The Soap Lab being one of them. There is always a need for language to be taught when missionaries come to a foreign country. The IMB team had been working with four ladies from Sudan who came to Arua to be their language nurturers. The team began to disciple their language nurturers and started teaching them to make soaps to sell to support their families in the refugee camp. 

 

She noticed that selling the of soaps was a bit difficult. Arich was able to use her background in business to help begin to find ways to sell the soaps. The money from the soap sales is used to help the ladies to be able to buy basic supplies for their families and help with medical costs. The more intertwined she was in helping with the Soap Lab, the more Arich loved it and saw the future it could bring for refugee women.

Arich is now being discipled by her friend and IMB missionary, Rebecca.  Arich told Rebecca of her desire to work more with the soap lab and her visions for the future of the lab. Rebecca had seen the passion Arich had for the ladies and the soap lab. In fact, she already been praying and knew that the Lord had brought Arich to this point. She and Arich set out to get things moving in a new direction! 

 

This year, Arich launched into working full-time with the Soap Lab, now called Refuge Soaps.

The name Refuge Soaps was chosen because Arich and the ladies wanted the workshop to be a refuge for women. They wanted it to be a safe space where the women could work, fellowship, and be discipled, and a be place that feels encouraging and builds them up. The whole project is designed to be a “refuge” for them.

 

Refuge Soaps produces three types of soap. Basic bar soap, liquid soap, luxury bar soap. Both soaps are made with lye, water, oils, and a perfume for scent if desired. The basic soaps are taken to the refugee camps and sold for washing clothes and bath time. 

For a good basic soap is the amount of lye is key. The more lye added to the mixture is better for clothes, but harsh on skin. So, a bathing soap is made using less lye. The soap making process takes about a day. But to produce the best soaps, the drying process takes about a month.

 

The luxury soap has the same process, but with different products. Coconut oil is often used. However, coconut oil is hard to find in Arua. If it is found, it is expensive or it must be ordered and sent up from Kampala. Sunflower oil, olive oil, canola oil, milk, honey, tea spices are also used in the luxury soaps. 

At the very beginning of June, Refuge Soaps found a place to call home. The timing is perfect because Refuge Soaps is growing!  In addition to the four original ladies who started the soap lab, Arich wants to add four more groups of five ladies each. The team of the four original ladies are excited about the new program and are seeking vulnerable women from Sudan and South Sudan to be involved in the groups

 

The new program will meet for six weeks.  Once a week, each Refuge group will gather at the new house to learn to make the basic bar soaps and liquid soap. They will have a time of discipleship where stories from Creation to Christ will be shared. Each story is selected based on the life experiences of the ladies and their current circumstances. After lunch, Arich will teach a session that she developed on learning basic business skill and principals. Even though the groups are learning to make soap, the goal for the business sessions is to show the ladies how the business skills can be applied to other things. Each woman will list out things they are good at doing as a potential small business for her family. Arich will also teach them how to look for the gaps in their community where a new business would do well. For instance, if a community has 10 ladies that make soap, the Refuge lady will hopefully see that she does not need to be the 11^th soap maker. Through the class, she could realize that her ability for baking tasty bread is gap in her community. It will also be a business that has less or zero competition. Then she can use her newly acquired business skills to help begin a small bread making business. 

 

When the six weeks are up, each lady receives a certificate and a soap starter kit of lye and oil, along with products to make liquid soaps. 

 

Arich smiled throughout our entire conversation. I asked her about her what she loved doing the most. She didn’t hesitate and said, “I think it’s obvious!” We had a good laugh. She continued by saying that she loved marketing and that she is discovering how much she loves training others in business skills. She wants to help women with business startups or to help better the business they already have. Arich told me that she used to think she was a quiet person with not much to say. But the now, she has a passion for talking! 

 

Arich and her team are enjoying the new, larger space. She and her team are excited to form the Refuge groups and begin the new program. Arich has more plans for Refuge Soaps and is working towards incorporating them by the beginning of next year. I can’t wait to see how Refuge soaps will grow and change lives of women and families. If you want to follow along with Arich and Refuge Soaps, you can follow her Instagram page at: @refuge_soaps.