When Samir Lakhani, an American student, saw a Cambodian woman washing her child with detergent, he was horrified. But then he thought of a place he could get large quantities of soap free of charge. Two years later, he’s already supplying villagers with a safe way to keep clean, and also with jobs.

First he went to hotel to hotel, asking for leftover soap. The NGO he was volunteering with – Trailblazer Cambodia Organization (TCO) – put him in touch with local students to help with soap production, and provided space for them to work. Once back in Pittsburgh for his final year of studies, he started crowd funding. Then he succeeded in obtaining sponsorship from major hotel chains, to enable him to train and pay soap makers. Two years after his eureka moment, his Eco-Soap Bank organization employs 30 staff in three hubs across Cambodia, collects soap from 170 hotels, and has supplied 650,000 people with a safe way of getting clean. Women sell eco-soap in villages, a “couple of hundred” schools are given it free of charge, and “hygiene ambassadors” from partner NGOs train the schoolchildren to wash their hands properly.

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The American student who gave Cambodian children a chance to get clean