FMIPA UNUD Trains SOS Village Children to Make Seagrass Cream Soap and Body Scrub

Udayana University lecturers from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sunday 23 July 2023, coinciding with National Children's Day, held training on making soap and scrub cream containing seagrass powder. Seagrasses are flowering plants that live in the sea. Unlike seaweed, seagrass has stems, leaves and roots. But also not much used. Chief executive, Made Pharmawati said that the results of the research conducted, found that seagrass contains bioactive compounds that function as antioxidants so that they can be used as additives in cosmetics.

 

The training was given to the children of the SOS Village Orphanage, which is located at Br. Bunur Puhun, Ds. Limit. district East Selemadeg, Tabanan, Bali. "Through this activity, we hope that the children can meet their needs for soap and scrubs for their own needs and can then form a soap and scrub production group that can be sold to the surrounding community so that they can become an independent source of funding for SOS Village, Tabanan. Besides that, we want to introduce the benefits of seagrass to children, explained the chief executive. That,

 

The training was attended by 26 children from the SOS Village Orphanage who were students from grades 5 to grade 11, and was attended by the Director of SOS Village Bali, Mr. Galih Heru Garbo S.Sos, and Regional Head Br. Bunur Puhun, Bantas Village, Mr. Juena. The soaps and creams that are made are cosmetics made from natural ingredients, because they use natural ingredients such as cocoa butter, beeswax or beeswax, and seagrass powder. Apart from cream scrubs, the children also made powder scrubs from rice flour, tapioca flour and dragon fruit peel powder, as well as orange peel powder. The activity began with a prayer together, and continued with demonstrations and practices for making cream scrubs, powder scrubs and soap containing seagrass powder. The children were very enthusiastic about learning, and enthusiastically doing the practice of making scrubs and soap.

 

Ni Wayan Astuti, one of the training participants, when asked about her impressions of participating in this training, said "The training was fun, I tried using homemade scrubs and my skin became smooth". She further said that making a cream scrub was a bit more difficult than making a powder and soap scrub, but would still try to make more.

 

Ni Putu Ariantari, an executive member of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences said that using cosmetics made from natural ingredients is safer than using chemicals, and many plants contain compounds that are antioxidants. Another implementing member, Luh Putu Wrasiati, from the Faculty of Agricultural Technology said that it was hoped that this training could trigger the creativity of the SOS Village Tabanan children, so as to produce products that have market value.

 

This activity was also coupled with KKN activities for Udayana University students, in Bantas Village. KKN students act as facilitators, assisting in the implementation of training.