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A Soapmaker's Story

A Soapmaker's Story

Raised in a crime and drug infested neighborhood of Santo Domingo, Martha was born into poverty. Once she and her husband had two kids, they moved to a squatter settlement to find greater safety and avoid rent. This area happened to be Las Malvinas, the area in which Esperanza Soaps would later move in. When Martha heard of it, she quickly became part of the team, saying, “It’s not just a job; it also helps me clear my head and it gives me a sense of accomplishment.”

 

Martha

Martha

 

The heartbeat of Esperanza Soaps is to employ the ‘unemployable’. They first arrived with a Chilean non-profit to help build houses, parks, a water cistern, etc., yet half of their projects failed because families couldn’t sustain them - “houses need to be maintained, pumps need servicing.” It soon became apparent that for this community to become self-sufficient, local job opportunities needed to be developed.

 

Morning Roast Bar

 


Raw Coconut Bar  
 

After ten years of relationships growing in the community, the founders of Esperanza had “bonded with many families to the point where their poverty had become ours and it pained us terribly to watch them continue under the grind of poverty.” Before long, Esperanza was born. A workshop was set up in the community and free training was offered to those women interested in learning soapmaking.

 

For this community to become self-sufficient, local job opportunities needed to be developed.

 

Esperanza now sells products using the best ingredients of the Dominican Republic such as coconut, cocoa butter, sugar cane, and coffee beans to make their natural and handmade soaps. With every soap that is purchased, opportunity is created to help another woman living in Las Malvinas. At Esperanza, they believe that poverty is debilitating because “It robs a person of her basic dignity and of opportunities to live out her full potential. As Christians, we have taken entrepreneurship to low-income communities following the footsteps of Christ and His passion for the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, and the invisible, hoping to be an instrument in freeing our world of extreme poverty.”

 

Aloe Blast Bar



Esperanza Products  

Since working at Esperanza, Martha has had the finances to invest in her children’s needs. Now they can have an opportunity to go to college and pursue a better future. And Martha isn't alone in her story of transformation. The work of Esperanza is truly impacting the lives of women, their families, and the community of Las Malvinas for good; for today and for many days to come.


“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” -Isaiah 58:9-10