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 Moctar Dembélé and Gérard Niyondiko, the brains behind Faso Soap,
were awarded a $25,000 prize for their invention in 2013 when they
became the first African winners of the Global Social Venture
Competition at the University of California Berkeley.
Yet Faso Soap must be tested to ensure it is safe for human use and
effective at preventing malaria before it can be mass produced by
soap manufacturers in Africa, said Franck Langevin, campaigns
director for the Ouagadougou-based startup.
The soap, created from natural oils and plants, could prove
successful in preventing malaria as it would be cheap and rely on
existing habits of African households, Langevin said.
"People in Africa are very reluctant to change their habits, but
soap is present in most homes, and is used for bathing, cleaning the
house and washing clothes," he said.
The soap is designed to repel mosquitoes up to six hours after being
applied, and once soapy water is thrown away on the street, hinder
the insects from breeding in stagnant water.
"It is a simple and affordable weapon in the fight against malaria,"
Langevin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Last month, Faso Soap launched a crowd funding appeal for $113,000
to finalize the development of the soap with the aim of distributing
it in six African countries hardest-hit by malaria by 2018, working
with soap manufacturers and aid agencies.
Last year, there were 214 million cases of malaria worldwide with
the mosquito-borne disease killing 438,000 people, most of them in
sub-Saharan Africa.
Jo Lines, reader of malaria control and vector biology at the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, praised the idea behind the
soap, but said it would be dangerous to rely on an untested product
to protect against malaria.
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As a social startup, Langevin said Faso Soap has struggled to
attract funding from donors, including the World Health Organisation
(WHO) and United Nations children's agency (UNICEF), prompting the
inventors to turn to crowd funding.
World leaders committed to ending malaria by 2030 when they adopted
the Sustainable Development Goals last year.
Europe last month became the first region to be declared
malaria-free after reporting no indigenous cases in 2015, and a
former WHO official said the world can eliminate the disease soon,
but only with more investment to end and keep it at bay.
(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Katie Nguyen; Please
credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking,
corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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