It’s a long way from Laurel Hill to Laos.
Scotland County native Mac Maness left his childhood home for the usual reasons: higher education, a stint in the army, and a career that bounced he and his young family around the U.S. Years later, life took an unexpected turn. Maness booked a 30-day trip to Laos and is still there eight years later. He is now executive director of Soap4Life, a non-profit founded with his native Lao wife Viengphila “La” Vaiyakone.
Maness roamed the nearby Sandhills growing up, looking for arrowheads, spearheads and pot shards. Fascinated by Native American culture, he volunteered at the newly established Indian Museum, creating displays and giving demonstrations. An accountant by profession, he later studied and taught “Primitive Technologies” such as early tool-making, using materials such as flint, plant fibers and animal parts. His inspiration for the trip to Laos stemmed from an interest in the reemergence of the traditional silk industry there.
“That and a crossword puzzle clue — the country with the shortest name,” he said laughing.
At the start of his trip, Maness learned of a nonprofit, Abundant Water of Australia, working in Laos to design a water filter from clay and charcoal. Having recently taught a class on ancient ceramic water filters, Maness volunteered his help. He created a filter that villagers could make for themselves — and then cancelled his return flight home.
Laos is a mountainous and inaccessible country, filled with natural beauty and isolated villages. Heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, Laos continues to experience the aftermath of that war due to masses of unexploded, widely scattered cluster bombs and mines. With so many villages cut off from modern technology, poverty, disease and infant mortality are rampant.
Access to clean water is a major component in improved living conditions worldwide. Hired as country director for Abundant Water, Maness and his staff built and distributed filters to remote villages and schools that now produce over seven million liters of clean water each year. But he and Vaiyakone, who grew up such a village, realized that hygiene would not substantially improve unless soap was available as well. Galvanized into action, Maness and Vaiyakone researched soap recipes. With experimentation, Viayakone devised a simple recipe utilizing local botanical ingredients such as coconuts, mangos and turmeric.
Using their own money, the pair traveled into isolated areas, donating soap and demonstrating handwashing to the villagers. Over the next years, Vaiyakone conducted soap-making classes for village women, as Maness set up non-profit status and sought donor support.
With financial backing, Maness and Vaiyakone created a training facility with the goal of empowering women to create independent soap-making businesses back in their villages. Highly intensive, the program proved popular and successful, making soap more available and creating desperately needed income for the women and their families. In addition to the economic gains, women in the program reported an increase in status among their peers and greater inclusion in village council decision-making.
Soap4Life continues to set new goals and Maness and Vaiyakone continue to work without compensation. The school now has a permanent location in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Participants in the program return home with the soap they made in training and all the equipment and supplies necessary to start their businesses. Some graduates are hired by Vaiyakone to make and sell soap to hotels and tourist shops, providing renewed funds for Soap4Life.
The couple’s latest undertaking is the installation of handwashing stations in schools. Forty-five stations have been installed so far. Many more remain to be funded. An important aspect of this project is teaching the how and when of properly washing hands.
Soap4Life”s approach to aid is receiving worldwide recognition. Bodhisastra University in Miami and Thailand announced an honorary doctorate award to Maness in recognition of his work, though he admits that it is his wife who deserves the honor. With an extensive and varied collection of pets at home, the support of friends, the occasional almost traditional Southern breakfast — “But I can’t get grits!” Maness complains — the two are inspired and inspiring. They dream of the day when their efforts extend to all 15 provinces in Laos.
For information about Soap4Life, go to www.soap4Life.org.
Pat ‘Elise’ Morgan grew up in Laurel Hill, but has been a resident of Oakland, California, for the past 40 years.
