Marie Christina Kolo’s “Alt. Soap” is Helping the Poor in Madagascar Win the Fight Against COVID-19
In April 2020, Marie and her team’s innovative idea won Madagascar’s first national Hackathon “Hackoragnavius”. Their idea? “Alt. Soap”, an eco-friendly soap gel that does not require rinsing with water, developed by her social enterprise, Green N Kool.
While the world awaits the COVID-19 vaccine, Marie-Christina Kolo from Madagascar has developed a COVID-19 solution that is proactively saving lives in her community. She was recently approached for collaboration by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water in Madagascar.
The project aims to overcome the lack of drinking water faced by the people of Madagascar and help the poorest who do not have the access to water, soap, and hydro-alcoholic solutions (sanitisers).
“With the coronavirus, washing your hands with soap has become a necessity, but it is not accessible to everyone. We have therefore imagined a soap based on used edible oil, the main source of water pollution in the Malagasy capital Antananarivo,” Marie-Christina Kolo said.
To produce Alt.soap, Marie and her team collect and treat used cooking oil from canteens and restaurants with non-chemical products and then pass it into a centrifuge, where it is mixed with soda.
