More Than Fifty Belizeans Learn to Make Soap

Marion Ali, Reporting

The lesson at hand is not to make anything edible, but rather how to clean your plate after you eat. These citizens hail from all over Belize. For the next three weeks, fifty of them will be attending a course at the Belmopan Civic Centre to learn how to make liquid soap, as well as bathing soap. The training comes as a result of the need for people to generate economic revenues from something almost everyone uses in the kitchen and in the bathroom.

Sheran Palacio

Sheran Palacio, Mayor, Belmopan
“After inheriting what I inherited at City Hall, which was basically nothing, I had to come up with what I call the creative economy and find out what I can do for people, because when you become a leader there’s a lot of responsibilities, and continuously at City Hall I have people making requests and all of it has to do with finances and I don’t have that.”

Teaching the course is Fatima Sahra, a respected entrepreneur from Z’adore, Ghana.

Fatima Sahra

Fatima Sahra, Entrepreneur, Ghana

“I happen to meet Madam Sharon Palacio back in Ghana and she told me what she wants to do for the young women in Belize. And she came to where I was teaching and she saw the work I was doing and she asked me if I could come to Belize to help. And I’m working with – my partners are African City Council, so they decided to sponsor me to come here and help Madam Sharon, help the young women with this skill.”

Marion Ali

“So you’ll be here for three weeks teaching these skills?”

Fatima Sahra

“Yes.”

The morning session was interactive; most of the participants took notes, gathered close up to observe the chemical changes, or asked questions for clarity.

Petrona Cholom and Joel Chacon both plan to convert their learning experiences into that creative economy that Mayor Sheran Palacio spoke of.

Petrona Cholom

Petrona Cholom, Learning to make soap
“As I get the main idea of it I am looking toward making a little business so that I could be able to post a flyer or on social media so that others could get to know about my product.”

Joel Chacon

Joel Chacon, Learning to make soap

“I always open to learning new stuff and I think soap-making is a great difference here in the country of Belize and I have always wanted to learn something like-soap-making it’s a slight different idea I had where there is too much imports coming from outside and we need to start exporting stuff from Belize.”

Marion Ali For News Five