With support from volunteer Grace Macneil, Maya Traditions Foundation will now be producing soaps and salves made with plants found in our Organic Medicinal Plant Garden. With this, we hope to increase access to natural products made with medicinal plants locally.

 Grace, a certified traditional herbalist, has been working with medicinal plants for twenty years. In Indiana, USA, Grace has a 25 acre farm where she grows organic medicinal herbs, vegetables, and raises animals to produce dairy products and meat. Just as we use our medicinal plant garden to support our healers & artisans, Grace uses her farm as a base for her herbal business Monarch Apothecary. She also produces handmade soaps and herbal products from herbs that she grows herself. Recently, she offered a workshop to our staff, teaching them how to make natural soap using herb infused olive oil & coconut oil, and beeswax as an alternative to petroleum-based products.

Handmade soap is a fairly lucrative product, and production can be started with low overhead cost to locals. As a result, Grace hopes that the sales from a natural soap product could provide another form of support for the healers and artisans that we partner with while expanding the range of products that Maya Traditions offers.

The newly developed soaps and salves should be hitting stores soon in Panajachel, Guatemala!

Visit our website to learn more about our Medicinal Plant Garden and Volunteering .