Soon, a variety of soaps made by patients of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) will be on sale. As part of industrial therapy, the institute has started to train a handful of women patients in making soaps from natural ingredients.
Already, IMH’s Industrial Training Centre established in 1972 runs the hospital canteen, bakery, cover-making unit and soft toy unit. Patients, who improve with treatment, are employed at these units as part of rehabilitation. Now, the institute has added soap making to its list of efforts for rehabilitating patients.
“This is a very innovative project for our residents, and is being attempted for the first time with the help of The Candles, a NGO working for mental health. It will lead to our residents becoming self sufficient as this will bring in revenue and will be the first step towards them being integrated back into the community,” P. Poorna Chandrika, director of IMH, said.
The Candles is providing vocational training to two batches of women patients, who are improving with treatment, in making a variety of soaps. The soap varieties would include aloe vera, turmeric, cucumber, carrot, beetroot, charcoal, rose, ‘avarampoo’, lemon, orange and “vetiver”. The packs will carry the tag line of “a product made by residents of Mental Health Institute” to remove the stigma on the mentally ill in the society.
“As of now, the first batch of 15 are being engaged in soap making, while the second batch of an equal number will be trained after March. This is a cold processing method of making soaps. Except for caustic soda, raw materials that are organic and natural are being provided. They will use natural ingredients such as aloe vera, ‘kasturi manjal’, rose, hibiscus, ‘multani mitti’ and ‘avarampoo’ along with essential oils. The soap varieties will mostly be from ingredients native to the State,” Angelin Prince, director of The Candles said.
She added that this would help in empowering them. “Soap making was selected as many persons were shifting to natural products now. To start with, about 100 to 200 soaps would be made in a month. We will market these soaps through social media on our Facebook and Instagram pages, and through friends,” she said.
Crisil Foundation, as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, will be providing the ingredients to make the soaps, a press release said.
