With hopes to give more to the community, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Johor Bahru had collaborated with Kechara Soup Kitchen Johor Bahru and Diversey in its latest sustainability programme, Soap for Hope.
Making its debut in Johor and marking the first of its kind to commence with a Hilton hotel in Malaysia, Soap for Hope, is a livelihood programme innovated by Diversey that aims to help the local, through its soap-recycling concept, with three core objectives – saving lives by enabling hygiene through providing access to soap to communities who needs it but have no access; providing livelihood to local community through recycling and reprocessing soap; and helping hotels reduce waste by turning used soap into something of value.
In a soap-recycling demonstration conducted at Kechara Soup Kitchen Johor Bahru headquarters, General Manager of DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru, Daniel Alcaraz expressed his gratitude in being able to contribute to such programmes.
“It is truly an honour to be the first Hilton hotel in Malaysia to champion a campaign that is part of Hilton’s commitment to repurposing used goods for the community’s needs that helps to give back to the society,” said Daniel.
To date, the Hotel has managed to recycle about 24,000 kg of soaps that amounts to approximately 191,000 new soap bars while over 437,000 kg of soaps has been recycled in Hilton Asia Pacific alone.
Besides that, Daniel also expressed the privilege in working together with Kechara Soup Kitchen in this programme as DoubleTree and Kechara has already established a long relationship where the Hotel has been providing food to Kechara Soup Kitchen for distribution to the poor.
Meanwhile, Kechara Johor head, Merlin Hoo, said this programme is a nice addition to their already existing sewing programme that involves over 10 housewives from all over the area.
She also commented, the organisation will later invite more homes needing assistance, especially with housewives and single mothers, to participate in the soap-recycling programme in hope to empower the underprivileged by creating another avenue for them to generate income.
“We will either distribute the finished soap to the homeless when we provide them with food or we will get companies to sponsor them for distribution instead of having them buy the soaps. The money will then be distributed to the participants,” said Merlin.
For now, Kechara has provided food to over 700 individuals a week that comes from the homeless and underprivileged living in People’s Housing Project units.
With that, let’s all ponder on the wise words of Diversey’s Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Director Stefan Chang during his soap-recycling demonstration that; “What is of no value to you does not mean of no value to other people.”
