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“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”
—Dr. Paul Polak

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Fair Trade Soap:

Training Entrepreneurs & Providing a Living Wage

Project Goal

Generate income for rural women and farmers through the production of a value added product.

Project Update: Click here to see contextual photos from the project.
  • immersion + research
  • transforming + designing
  • implementing + finalizing
  • fortifying + measuring

Overview

Design Impact partnered with ODAM to enhance the design and marketability of their handmade glycerin soap. ODAM began their soap-making venture as an off-shoot of their small scale biofuel production. Glycerin is a natural co-product of the biofuel process, and ODAM used this glycerin to establish a soap enterprise. The soap enterprise is operated by women in ODAM’s Self Help Groups and all profits go towards ODAM’s community development programs. To develop the product, Design Impact provided intense on-the-ground research of soap, local and international market audits, community brainstorming sessions, prototype and packaging designs, user interviews, and partnership development.

Fellow

Ramsey Ford and Kate Hanisian are the founders of Design Impact. They served as fellows on this project from September 2009-September 2011 during the piloting stage of Design Impact. Their full bios can be found here.

Partner

Location: Thiruchuli, Tamil Nadu

ODAM is a non-governmental organization that has worked since 1996 to address poverty, women’s empowerment, child welfare, climate change, human rights, education, and health issues that affect rural communities. Their innovative development programs have touched thousands of lives in the arid rural regions of southern India.

Outcomes

  • Improved distribution of the soap product
  • Increased wages for employed women
  • Increased support for ODAM’s development projects