Derreck Kayongo calls himself a “disrupter” of the soap business. Kayongo, founder of the Global Soap Project and CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, was the keynote speaker September 27 at IFAI Expo 2017 and his passion for his work was fully evident.

Dressed in a dapper plaid suit and brimming with genuine warmth, Kayongo described how in 1979, at the age of 10, his privileged life changed overnight.  When Idi Amin Dada came into power, Kayongo’s parents, both owners of success businesses, became refugees, eventually settling  in the United States.

Kayongo’s first night in an America hotel made a life-changing impact on him—all because of three bars of soap. He was so surprised to see three kinds of soap, so he put two bars in this bag. But the next day, three more bars of new soap had been placed in the hotel bathroom. Concerned that he would be charged for the soap he had taken, he made his way to the concierge to give back the two bars. The concierge laughed and told him the soap was free and part of the regular room charge.

Soap and water are simple hygiene tools in countries like the United State, but that is not case in many developing countries. Kayongo said that 800 million bars of soap are thrown away every year, yet soap is so important in maintaining a healthy life. In developing countries, many children drop out of school, simply because of illness caused by lack of sanitation.

When Kayongo decided to start his soap recycling business, he had to get past the “yuck factor” of killing germs in used soap. The yuck factors are the things that make a particular business difficult. “All businesses have a  yuck factor. If you can deal with the yuck factor you’ll be successful,” said Kayongo.

Eventually, Kayongo came upon the idea of scraping the top layer off the soap, then freezing it to kill germs. Biological testing proved that the method worked. The soap is then crushed and processed into long bars that are packaged and shipped to numerous countries where sanitation is a problem. As a result of his efforts, infection rates have greatly dropped in the countries served by the Global Soap Project. In Malawi, infection rates dropped from 90 percent to 40 percent, according to Kayongo, due to making soap more readily available.

Americans read a lot of self-help books, remarked Kayongo, but does anyone remember anything they read? He has his own definition for SELF:

• Service to others
• Education to learn about other cultures and customs
• Leadership to humble oneself to keeping failing and learning
• Faith to believe in your ideas and employees

He also shared his business philosophy:

• Don’t seek perfection.
• Seek balance.
• Seek consistence.
• Seek Justice.
• Seek passion.
• Seek a cause for humanity,
• and your life will have meaning.