Soap

I was trolling CNN.com looking for interesting headlines when I came across “Recycling hotel soap to save lives.” Here’s the nutshell:  while hotel guests here in the States throw away slightly used soap without a second thought, there are people in our world dying of poor-hygiene-related illnesses.

Reading on, it seems the Global Soap Project is engaged in collecting and reprocessing used soap for shipment to places such as Haiti, Uganda, Kenya and Swaziland. This is no small thing, since according to CNN.com, more than two million children die each year of diarrheal illness.

Daughter Two has been very involved in the effort to rescue children caught up in war. That’s a noble enterprise, and I am proud of her involvement. But not all of us have the time or passion to take on such a monumental problem.

Soap, on the other hand, I can do. Our practice among the road warriors for my company has been to collect all the unused “complimentary” items and once a month or so we take them to the women’s shelter. We’ll probably keep up this practice, since it’s local and easy to do and has a direct impact on people who need it.

But the Global Soap Project has my attention.

Between doing yard work and heading across the street for soup with the neighbors this evening, I took a luxurious shower in a private room with an exhaust fan and all the usual amenities. I shaved lest I look grisly and used anti-perspirant lest I smell grisly and put on fresh clothes, the second full set of the day.

And kids in this world are dying for lack of a bar of soap.

Damn…