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"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop"
How did a group of young souls came up with the interaction between Syrian women, soaps and all the universe around this two words?
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The first step!
Benny met Michele and Lauranne in the Social Entrepreneurship class at Nova School of Business and Economics. The goal of the course was to tackle one societal problem, so they chose to help the refugees that were struggling in finding a job and integrating.
1
Problem Found!
During the winter break, Benny, our Management Octopus, met a Syrian family that was struggling with all the bureaucracies to restart their lives in Portugal.
4
Success!
So we did it! The crowdfunding campaign was a success - we achieved our goal in just one week and a half! In this stage we got enough resources to start building everything!
7
Support!
Several actors brought their support, helping us to move forward. IPAV provided us with a space to test the final recipe, becoming later our factory
10
New recruits!
The initial team needed to pursue personal dreams and professional lives and had to find someone to help.
Hence, at the beginning of 2020 the team changed with Maisaa, Ali and Graça.
We also had help from other entities and young volunteers such as EY, Júnior from ISCTE, and Fanny, who improved our website and our social networks.
Help also came from all the people who support us through purchases or encouragement.
5
Hands on!
Duarte and Pedro, our soap mixologists, joined the team and started to test and re-test to find the perfect recipe. It wasn't easy but the soap got absolutely perfect!
8
Legal status!
Dealing with the legal issues of creating a project is not easy: many licenses, many permits, but we were determined.
During the waiting time, we were testing the soaps on our family, friends and ourselves
11
Expanding!
Here we are, trying to find our space, with the same enthusiasm as at the beginning and the same believe that we can grow further in order to create more impact and to bring together two cultures that have more in common than we might first think.
3
Validation!
After presenting the project to the class, the feedback was very good and the team was really motivated! We couldn't stop there! We decided to participate in BET24 entrepreneurship contest, that had just opened a Social Challenge. We won the contest, but we needed to run a crowdfunding campaign to kick-off!
6
Growing!
The team got bigger again, with Rita and Joana joining the team. We were making everything we could to present the Amal Soap to you as fast as possible!
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9
Launching!
We submitted our beautiful creation to Infarmed, allowing us to obtain the status of social business. The project is finally launched
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