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The TOFALA Women Association that was reorganized in December 2013 has now gone fully operational in its operation and the association is helping the women to improve on income generating activities. Just after receiving support of a cassava grinding mill by the Non-profit Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), the women have embarked yet again on another local income generating activity, that of local soap making with the use of local resources such as kernel oil, palm oil, and other industrial products such as foaming agent.
In a workshop organized by ERuDeF in June, 2014 in Menji, the different women shared their experiences on the combination of local materials for the production of the local soap, savon. The participants at this workshop confessed that the training would help boost the quality and quantity of soap production. “Some women used to put more caustic soda and that makes the soap to have negative effect on the palms of the users. But with this training, I am sure the quality of soap produced will surely improve’ The President of the Association, Akwanga Voluntary said.
The workshop was also an occasion for many who have never known how to make powder detergent to acquire the skills based on application and combination of local resources around them. The two-day workshop that brought together over 43 women built capacities of these women who took the new skills to their respective communities. It is hoped that the training will permit them generate more income on regular basis that would help increase their savings with the Forest protection Fund scheme already operational in the TOFALA area.
Eventhough the main raw material for the production of powder detergent locally known as OMO is widely available (palm kernel), its “effective availability” is hampered due to the lack of equipment to help extract the kernel oil from the bi-product of the Man and Nature and the Transpetrol Foundation supported palm oil projects in the TOFALA communities. Supporting this extraction could move the initiative of the women into an industrial operation capable of creating more jobs and empowering the women in a sustainable way.
It would also be recalled that the overall goal of building the capacities of these women is empower them economically and divert their attention from the rich Tofala forest filled with endangered wildlife including the critically endangered cross River Gorilla.
Forbe Hodu