Supporting Women, One Soap Bar at a Time

This year, the Malta Development Bank marked International Women’s Day with a small but meaningful gesture.

MDB’s Social Events Team partnered with Meraki Sapun Malta, a social enterprise run by SOAR Malta, a service of Fondazzjoni St Jeanne Antide.

SOAR is a survivor-led service that helps women who have experienced violence in intimate relationships rebuild their lives with resilience, dignity, and wellbeing. In Malta, one in three women are affected by intimate partner violence, a reality that makes the work of organisations like SOAR all the more important.

Fondazzjoni St Jeanne Antide is a community-focused organisation that provides professional support to vulnerable individuals and families facing difficult life circumstances, social exclusion, and poverty.

Through Meraki Sapun, women supported by SOAR turn their skills and experience into handcrafted soap. To mark the occasion, MDB placed an order with the social enterprise, with each purchase also contributing towards the future Survivors’ Hub: a safe and supportive space created by and for the women who need it most.

On a weekday morning around International Women’s Day, every member of the MDB team arrived to find a box waiting for them. Inside was a bar of handcrafted soap, an inspiring quote, and practical guidance on how to support a friend or relative who may be in a toxic relationship.

For MDB, the initiative was a reminder that development is not only about financing infrastructure or supporting businesses. It is also about people, communities, and the small but meaningful ways in which support can be shown.

The gesture did not go unnoticed. Meraki Sapun Malta shared warm words of thanks, and Fondazzjoni St Jeanne Antide also expressed its appreciation for the support of its mission.

MDB is proud to have supported Meraki Sapun’s work and grateful for the thoughtful start to the day it gave the team.

A woman of the Meraki team preparing the handcrafted soap, and the finished package