VOA常速英语:Women-Owned Startup Aims for Cleaner Hands and a Healthier Planet

Once playtime is over, it is one of the easiest things we can do to keep ourselves and others healthy but most of us are doing it wrong.It’s such a simple habit to do and the fact that people aren’t doing it and it’s resulting actually in death so it’s shocking so we decided on coming up with a fun solution.
一旦游戏时间结束，这是我们可以做的最简单的事情之一，以保持自己和他人的健康，但我们大多数人都做错了。这是一个很简单的习惯，事实上人们并没有这么做，它会导致死亡，这很令人震惊，所以我们决定想出一个有趣的解决方案。

Two entrepreneurs from India created a new hygiene product.SOAPEN is the soap that kids can draw with, it’s a fun way to teach kids how to wash their hands.Young people make a mess with SOAPEN and then have to scrub to get if off.Kids actually wash their hands for the proper amount of time because they’re drawing on their and underwater that they’d rub really hard to remove the drawing so actually washing their hands instead of just going underwater and you know, one second wash and off.
两名印度企业家发明了一种新的卫生产品。SOAPEN，肥皂笔，是孩子们可以用来画画的肥皂，这是教孩子们洗手的一种有趣的方式。孩子们用肥皂画笔在手上乱画，就要费点力气去清洗双手。孩子们就会有足够的洗手的时间, 因为他们把手浸在手中，他们会擦洗，因为很肥皂笔的痕迹很难消除，所以是他们要真的去洗手,而不只是在水管下面冲一下就走。

In an effort to get their product on the market,the two women applied for a spot at a business incubator in Georgetown called Halcyon located on the aptly named Prospect Street. Being an entrepreneur is really really hard. There’s a kind of an up-and-down roller coaster ride.One day things are going great, the next day things are terrible and if you’re doing that alone, it can be really really challenging.Halcyon places social entrepreneurs with business professionals who help them refine a marketing strategy.
为了让他们的产品进入市场，这两位女士申请了乔治敦一家名为Halcyon的企业人才培养站的职位。做一个企业家真的很难。就像坐过山车一样。一天过得很好，第二天没准就过得很糟糕，如果你一个人在做这件事，那将是非常非常具有挑战性的。Halcyon将社会企业家与商业专业人士放在一起，帮助他们完善营销策略。

Without an incubator like Halcyon, I don’t think we would be able to make or envision social impact as greatly as we are able to right now.SOAPEN is being launched with support from Halcyon. UNICEF reports that one and a half million kids die each year as a result of diarrhea and the proper hand washing could reduce that number by 40%.
如果没有像Halcyon这样的孵化器，我认为我们不可能像现在这样对社会产生巨大的影响。SOAPEN是在Halcyon的支持下启动的。联合国儿童基金会报告说，每年有150万儿童死于腹泻，如果洗手得当，这一数字可能会减少40%。

Arash Arabasadi, VOA News, Washington.
阿拉什·阿拉巴萨迪，美国之音新闻，华盛顿报道。