gave her hope. Her daughter would be one of a small group of children in high school provided with government insurance for a specific treatment. Insurance meant they could potentially take her to a big hospital to receive weekly chemotherapy. With this new hope came a challenge. How would Margaret and her daughter get to the hospital?

The hospital was almost 45 miles away - no small distance without a car in Western Kenya. She tried to raise money through her church, but waves of COVID-19 have taken so much from Matsakha and communities like it all over Africa. Margaret did have one option though, a choice she didn’t have last year - she could sell soap.

Margaret is a founding member of the Matsakha Development Group (MDG), our community partner in Matsakha - a group that has grown to 35 people. In January of this year, Friendly Water for the World started a Good Hygiene program with MDG. More than a dozen members trained to produce and sell soap. The training paid off as they created Meta, their own local soap. The soap has gone on to receive local government recognition and national Kenyan Bureau of Standards certification.

In the past year, the team, and Margaret, have sold over 6,000 liters of soap at local markets, health clinics, and schools. Margaret’s soap sales helped pay the transportation (and other costs that the insurance didn’t cover) for her and her daughter to make weekly trips to the hospital. The trips began in September and on October 23rd they traveled to the hospital for the last chemotherapy treatment.

After months of anxiety and stress, the doctors now say Margaret’s daughter is cancer free! Today she is recovering well and regaining her strength. She is on a special diet, but thanks to our Good Hygiene program and Meta soap sales, Margaret has the income to pay for it and choose a better future for her daughter, herself, and her whole family.