Giving Compass' Take:

• Causeartist profiles a socially-conscious company called Hand In Hand Soap, which donates their eco-friendly bars to communities in Haiti to promote healthier water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices.

• As Corporate Social Responsibility becomes more embedded within the private sector across the globe, it's important not only to recognize efforts such as Hand In Hand Soap, but to track their progress. How are they making an impact?

• Cleaning up the topic, here are ways to use data for more sustainable WASH financing.

There is a new social enterprise in town called Hand In Hand Soap. They are literally cleaning the soap industry. Changing the way they create soap even back to how they sell soap. Hand In Hand Soap, a company that works off of a “buy a bar, give a bar” model. Simply put, for every bar you buy they donate a bar to a community in need. As the founders have a heart for Haiti, that is where their focus and their community outreach has primarily been focused and that is where I had the privilege to serve. Not only do they donate bars but they also teach the importance of hygiene.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that when you build a business model that seeks to provide resources it is crucial that you also provide the education needed for the community to take full advantage of those resources. Those in highly impoverished areas don’t always understand the importance of hygiene and the long term effects to their health that poor hygiene can have. It’s heartbreaking to me to know that 5 million children worldwide die every year due to water-related illnesses, and that over 45% can be prevented by handwashing alone!

Read the full article about impacting the soap industry by Jen Morilla at Causeartist.