Terra Sword | 1st December 2011 | Northern Rivers Echo

As you walk into Multitask's soap factory there's two things you immediately notice - the smiley, inquiring faces of the workers and the delicious, pungent smell of lemon myrtle.

Multitask provides employment for around 100 people with varying degrees of physical and intellectual disabilities through a variety of business arms - soap making, packaging and printing, sandal making, and plant protectors for nurseries. It has been going for over 40 years and some of the workers have been there from the beginning. Previously called Lismore Challenge, the name evolved with the changing times as people began to take a different view of disabilities and look to people's abilities rather than the challenges they faced.

Today, Multitask is a fully-fledged business that pumps out around 400,000 bars of soap a year and holds major contracts with TP Health and Sanctum. As the workers laugh and joke with me, I get the feeling it's a happy workplace.

"Working here makes you feel like part of the community and everyone smells nice. There's no dirty mouths here, they've all been washed out with… soap!" Lisa Lewis laughs.

"It gets you out of the house and meeting new people and we're all pretty good friends," Anita Gooding says.

"Multitask helps you to achieve new skills," Lisa adds. "And the soap's really good."

A Multitask Green Team is also employed by Lismore City Council to do parks and gardens maintenance and other Multitask workers recently helped spruce up the Christmas decorations you see around the CBD.

"It gives people value and builds their self-esteem - having real work does that," Multiask's Joe World said. "Employees get Award wages and superannuation like anybody else."

Next Monday, December 5, Multitask is opening a Christmas Shop opposite the Pie Cart in Magellan Street, selling soaps, sandals, homemade foods and haberdashery until December 23.