A WALTHAMSTOW businesswoman is to travel to a "no-go" region of Nigeria to help train disadvantaged women in making and selling soap.

Melinda Coss, of Grove Road, who runs website makesoap.biz and also teaches courses in soap making, will visit Rivers State along with seven fellow soap makers from around the world.

They will spend two weeks teaching 1,500 women in the troubled state to make handmade soap from locally grown herbs, spices and oils, as well the basics of business and marketing.

Ms Coss said: "Soap making is the perfect medium for social enterprise as initial investment and resource requirements are low and returns can be high.

"It also offers opportunities to put added value onto locally grown plants and oils, the harvesting and processing of which can create additional micro enterprises in the regions that most need them."

The enterprise is part of a non-governmental project set up and funded by Lady Judith Amaechi, First Lady of Rivers State, under her "Empowerment Support Initiative".

The initiative is aimed at promoting vocational training and enterprise for disadvantaged people in her region.

Melinda Coss is the author of The Handmade Soap Book and Gourmet Soaps Made Easy and has also worked on projects in South Africa and Tanzania.