Two African students have created a malaria-repellant soap using local herbs, and have won, consequently, a $25,000 Global Social Venture Competition award.
The GSVC is the only international competition of social business plans, dedicated to students, young graduates, and entrepreneurs with high social and/or environmental startups.
Moctar Dembélé, who hails from Burukina Faso, and Gérard Niyondiko, from Burundi, are the first non-Americans to win the Global Social Venture Competition.
Both are students of the Intsitut International de l’Eau et de l’Envirronement de Ouagadougou (International Institute of water and environment), in Burkina Faso.
The invention will carry the name Faso soap.
“The soap will be available first here, and then given to NGO,” Niyondiko, the technical manager, said in a video that was posted online today.
The soap is made from karate citronella, and other undisclosed herbs.
“We want a simple solution, because every one uses soaps, even in the very poor communities,” Dembélé, the general manager said.
In Africa, the mosquito is the only cause of dangerous malaria. Each year, 300 million cases of malaria are reported in Africa and still a main cause of death, according to the video.
Faso soap is a solution from Africa to an African problem.
Source: africanglobe.net
