Children in Haiti wash their hands with soap obtained through the Clean the World program. (Courtesy of Clean the World )
Long after these first experiences in Africa, I became a diplomatic official attached to the U.S. State Department. My work brought me to war-ravaged countries around the world. My nights were spent in hotels. The little bars of soap they supplied were hardly used, so I continued my practice of saving them and kept them in my pockets wherever I went.
In one enclave in Cambodia, I witnessed the tragedy of a war gone wrong. A village of refugees was destroyed by communist inspired forces. Along the roadside, 30 children had been killed, their throats cut. There was nothing left of the village save ashes from burned huts and earthenware pots that survived fire.
I was all caution, my hands at my sides ready. I felt a delicate scratching in first one palm then the other. It was only a perception and nothing to alarm me. It continued so gently I looked down. Two little children appeared from wherever they had taken shelter managing to survive the slaughter of their families. Thankfully I had my pockets full of little hotel soaps. I produced them and gave them to the children. They put them to their noses and jumped with glee. “Sabu, sabu,” the two boys pronounced and were enthralled by the fragrance and the soap.
Fast forward, many hotel rooms later, to The Peabody Orlando Hotel this week. Yet another business trip, another hotel room, and more bars of fragrant soap and fancy amenities on the nightstand and in the bath. I used one bar, then saved it in my shaving kit. I was familiar with the usual practice: The once used bar of soap would be taken away, thrown out, wasted, new bars placed in the bathroom, and no further thought given to the fact that people all over the world need and crave soap.
In the world around us, statistics from the World Food Council reveal that every day 35,000 people die from starvation; 24 people starve to death every minute. Of these, 18 are children under 5 years of age who suffered and died before they have lived, many from bacterial diseases contracted from dirty hands.
All this for a lack of soap; something usually wasted, thrown away, gathered in dumpsters, and carried to landfills that charge by the ton to bury the precious soap. Until now that is.
Marshall Kelberman, the Rooms Division director at Orlando’s Peabody Hotel, saw the waste. He learned about a program called Clean The World created by two business travelers who were persuaded on their 200-nights-a-year stays in hotel rooms that something better could be accomplished with otherwise wasted soap. Marshall persuaded Alan Villaverde, president of The Peabody Hotel Group and general manager of The Peabody Orlando Hotel, that saving soap was a good idea.
Jack Renaud, a producer for CBS television, was on hand to video hotel employees gathering used soap bars. The crew recorded Sarah, an 18-year veteran Peabody room attendant originally from Haiti, who likewise became enthusiastic about The Peabody Hotel initiative. From her first day on the job, Sarah wondered why they were throwing out all this soap.
“It’s a great little story. Two guys that spent most of their lives as business executives staying in hotel rooms wondered what they did with the soap,” Renaud said. “This program takes the used soap. They have homeless guys on the payroll to pick it up in a truck. The program employs other homeless people to steam it, melt it down, and make flat little cakes of soap and wrap them. They take the soap bars to Haiti and distribute them,” the CBS producer added.
“They had 3,100 pounds of soap. Soap costs $10 a bar in Haiti. People make $2 a day. They took the soap to a church where 8,000 people were waiting. It was a frenzy. This was only their second time distributing soap,” the CBS producer from New York said.
“We have 175,000 bars of soap and we will help them ship that,” Marshall Kelberman said, adding, “Many of our housekeeping staff are from Haiti. We got immediate cooperation and excitement from them.”
“There are 140,000 hotel room units in Orlando,” said Tony Aslanian, The Peabody Hotel’s director of Sales and Marketing. “Of these, 110,000 are hotel rooms, 30,000 time shares, [and they] are available every day. We are only one destination. Imagine Las Vegas and other major destinations,” he added with enthusiasm.
The initiative to save otherwise wasted soap is catching on. Perhaps with it a focus on waste in the United States will also become apparent. I shall always remember the little child in Congo who died in my arms for want of a little food. Malnourished, his bloated body was carried by a skeletal mother to the hospital. She came too late, so bloated and swollen, his little body was no longer able to function to absorb even fluids.
This month the United Nations will be proclaim World Hand Washing Day. “Bacteria kill millions of children,” the CBS producer said as he arrived from Haiti.
Look what a little bar of soap can do. When you scrape your plate into the garbage pail after dinner tonight, imagine what a little wasted food could do.
For more information visit www.cleantheworld.org.
Dr. John Christopher Fine has authored 24 books. Many deal with issues of environmental pollution leading to destruction of natural resources that support life essential to produce food. His book, "The Hunger Road," with a foreword by Mother Teresa, describes his work around the world to stem the effects of starvation and disease.
