Archive for the ‘General news’ Category
Stories from the field – living with poverty
In another instalment of 'Stories from the field', Jane Bond looks a bit closer at what it means to live in poverty in India... Poverty is everywhere in India. We know this intellectually but the emotional reality is somewhat different. It is impossible to walk down a street in any town or city without witnessing people who are scraping a living one way or another. People live wherever they can, on pavements, in the middle of traffic circles and under overpasses. Poverty is not socially distinct as in the west, it exists cheek by jowel with wealth. My street here in Pondicherry is like the one I lived on in Calcutta. There are some nicer houses and there are some people who live in 1 room or a shack and cook on the street. Everyone knows everyone and much of daily life is conducted out in the open to get the benefit of fresh air. Child care is shared amongst an extended family and everyone knows everything. [caption id="attachment_7501" align="alignleft" width="296"] Millions of people in India live on the streets and in slums[/caption] [caption id="attachment_7502" align="alignright" width="225"]
BBC2′s ‘Toughest Place to be a Farmer’ inspires fundraising for a rainwater reservoir…
After experiencing first hand the Samburu farmers' daily struggle to find water to sustain themselves and their livestock, Richard Gibson (BBC2's 'Toughest Place to be a Farmer') and his wife Heather are raising money to build a rainwater reservoir, which will provide a sustainable water supply for the farmers all year round... "The Summer of 2012 was a very grim one for UK farmers. When the BBC invited me to audition for a documentary titled 'Toughest Place to be a Farmer' it seemed a good opportunity to experience a place contrasting the muddy fields of Devon . Fortunately I was selected and within a month flown off to an unknown destination.The BBC do not want you to overthink this and need you quickly on location. Only at the airport was I told that I was off to a remote part of North East Kenya to join the Samburu tribe. [caption id="attachment_7437" align="alignleft" width="263"] Richard with his host Lemergichen[/caption] [caption id="attachment_7438" align="alignright" width="263"] Richard learns how the Samburu farm[/caption] Arriving at the ...
Ripples cycle challenge success
£1,660 raised so far, and still counting! After enduring rain, ice and snow throughout their training, the Ripples team finally enjoyed some good weather as they dove into the 220-mile cycle challenge from London to Paris last weekend (May 16th-18th). The feat of endurance was tackled by a team of 19 staff members from Ripples showrooms all over the country, raising money to further support their ecosan and clean water project in the village of Arasur in Tamil Nadu, India. [caption id="attachment_7445" align="aligncenter" width="608"] The team celebrate their achievement in Paris[/caption] Marshfield Bakery kindly donated a large supply of their flapjacks to keep the riders going, which were thoroughly enjoyed on the journey. The ride itself happily went very smoothly, with sunshine almost all the way and only a couple of punctures to slow things down. We would like to extend a huge thank you to the Ripples team and everyone who has supported them. With your dedication and support, we are able to change the lives of those most in need. Help Ripples reach their £2,000 target, and donate today
Stories from the field – Marudor school
Wherever the Need's Arumugaum and I stop at Marudor Middle School so I can see our newly installed toilet block there. We walk into the schoolyard - sandy earth with basic buildings around it. The windows have shutters and bars but no glass – shutters keep the heat out in the hot months and bars are for security or stopping children from escaping, I’m not sure which! Primary schools have alphabet window bars which I like. It’s quiet apart from repetitive chanting drifting through the air as children learn by rote – India’s key teaching method. A very smiley friendly lady in a purple sari and barefoot comes out of one of the classrooms. This is the headmistress - Thenmoshi. She takes me to her classroom to meet her students who are sitting on the floor reading English from the blackboard at the front. The sight of me means a break from lessons and they crowd around me. They are reluctant to say much and need a bit of prodding from Thenmoshi to speak English but they smile when I take their picture. They chant good morning to me and I ask them how they are; we practice English and they are ...
The Summer of Love
Win a £500 donation this summer through Virgin Money Giving. This summer, Virgin Money Giving are spreading the love by giving away £2,000 in donations to help you raise more for the charities you care about. Whether you’re taking part in an organised event or taking on your own personal challenge, you can enter the prize draw every month throughout the summer to win a £500 donation to your fundraising page. Every time you receive a donation to your page in May, June, July and August, Virgin Money Giving will automatically enter you into a prize draw for that month. There is £500 up for grabs each month throughout the draw, and because every donation gets you one entry, the more donations you receive the more chance you’ll have of winning. So get yourself in the mood for the Summer of Love and set up your fundraising page now.
Spotlight on our work – Kumudimoolai, India
450 more people now with ecosan, thanks to support from the ACT Foundation Thanks to support from the ACT Foundation, the people of Kumudimmolai now have 90 more ecosan, clean water and livelihoods. Tamil Nadu in the south of India is considered to be one of the wealthiest states in the country, but behind the statistics of economic growth and development lies another story – one of acute poverty. The rural population of Tamil Nadu ranks among the poorest in the world, with an estimated 12 million people living on or below the poverty line. Kumudimoolai is a rural village in Tamil Nadu, 30 miles south of the bustling city of Cuddalore. The 1,973 people living here belong to one the poorest and most excluded social groups in India, and when we first visited the community, poverty was rife. There were no working toilets in the village, which meant people were forced to find somewhere to go out in the open, which was spreading illness and disease. On top of this, the area is prone to flooding, and is always water logged. Human waste and in-organic fertilisers had contaminated the ground and water supply, making it hazardous to drink. Maintaining work was also ...
Ripples London to Paris cycle challenge
Ripples rides for toilets Bathroom retailer Ripples have been dedicated supporters of Wherever the Need for several years now, having already raised £10,000 for eco-toilets, clean water and a livelihood programme in Tamil Nadu, India. Showrooms all over the country have been taking part in the fundraising activities, and this latest challenge will bring staff together from around the UK. On 16th May, a team of 21 cyclists will tackle the challenging 220-mile ride from London to Paris in just 3 days. The group, which includes MD Paul Crow and brand manager Juliet Harris, are aiming to raise £2,000 to further support their sanitation and clean water project in the village of Arasur, India. They have been training hard over the past months, braving freezing weather and suffering injury, but their determination has carried them on. [caption id="attachment_7244" align="alignright" width="300"] © Ripples[/caption] On the team website, Paul Crow writes "When Ripples started raising money for...Wherever The Need, we didn't really know what we were letting ourselves in for to be honest. A luxury bathroom company providing Ecosan...facilities for a small village in India seemed the perfect match and helped create a nice feel-good ...
Stories from the field – a daily reality
On a visit to a rural Indian village, Jane Bond contemplates the daily reality of living without a toilet I spend a day with one of our field staff, Arumugam to help me better understand our project work and life in rural Tamil Nadu. He takes me to some villages we are planning on working in as soon as we have funds. I know the facts - 7 million+ rural households here in Tamil Nadu don’t have access to toilets – 76% of the rural population. Water quality is worsening, largely due to human fecal waste in drinking water; 91% of water tested in one study was contaminated. Over the last five years incidences of acute diarrheal diseases have increased from about 116,000/year to 523,000/year. Today I’m going to be meeting just a few of the people who live with these conditions on a daily basis. We go to a village called Boothampedi; the road doesn’t reach the village so we walk along a small dyke; on either side goats and young cows are gazing in recently harvested paddy fields. It’s very hot and it's quiet in the midday heat. The houses are small ...
Stories from the field – organic compost
In her third story, Jane Bond finds out more about our organic compost One of the fundamental benefits of Wherever the Needs approach to Sanitation and water is our compost toilets which mean that human waste is safely and effectively recycled. Human waste is very hazardous to health and can easily enter the water system if not properly managed. Here in India only 30% of the country has a sewage system and much of that is leaking or incomplete, common opinion being that around 20% of the system is approaching effective; mostly waste is dumped into water systems or into pits which often leak, leaching waste through the soil. Each person’s faecal waste is about 127kg/per year; every gram contains: 10 million pathogens, 1 million protozoa, 100,000 helminths (intestinal worms) and 10,000 worms and viruses. It makes my stomach turn and I feel pretty nauseous when I think of India’s 1.2 billion people and the incredibly huge amount of human waste they generate annually, most of it slowly creeping into the water system. So, David (Wherever the Need CEO) and Paramasivan (head of our Indian office) take me to ...
Stories from the field – Rice
In the second of her stories from the field, Jane Bond gets to know India and discovers the world of rice... I’m adjusting to rural India and as we travel out to look at projects I am fascinated. Main roads are filled with cows, buses, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians sharing the same space – pavements don’t exist and traffic lights are often ignored. The river of humanity is chaotic and noisy, everyone honks musical horns, fails to use indicators and drives where they like. Only cows placidly move along, serene in the knowledge they are the rulers of the road! Roads become smaller, emptier and windier deeper into the rural areas. Its harvest time, paddy fields are being hand scythed by groups of people, haystacks are common, we slow down for herds of bullocks and goats walking along the roads and grain are being spread across the road. This is for threshing rice; as vehicles drive over the rice the outer husk is separated from the grain. I think this is an ingenious labour saving solution. We stop to see the rice grown on Wherever the Need's research ...
Stories from the field – living with dirty water
Jane Bond is volunteer Project Officer for Wherever the Need India. She has been living and volunteering in India since November 2011, based in Tamil Nadu since February 2013. Read her stories from the field... Yesterday it rained heavily and unexpectedly in Tamil Nadu. For some areas it was the first rain in over a year, so I’m going to talk about the realities of living with India’s water supply. You’d think the rain would be a good thing, but it came at the wrong time and many farmers had seedlings damaged. Water here is a health risk we are lucky enough not to be familiar with in the west. When I first came to live in India water became a mild obsession as I adjusted – every drop I needed had to be pumped and was available only at certain times. For cooking and drinking my water had to be filtered and sometimes boiled - all of this took a lot of planning and time. At the time I lived in Calcutta which has terrible sanitation and water issues. Despite my care I was sick with water related illness regularly – sometimes as often as once a month. I ...
Bath Half Marathon 2013
Almost 40 runners completed the Bath Half Marathon for Wherever the Need on Sunday 3rd March. This was a brilliant turnout considering that this year was the first year that we have officially participated in the Bath Half Marathon. Whilst the weather was slightly chilly, our team weren’t disheartened, and dove enthusiastically into the challenge. Together, the team has raised over £5,000 to provide Krishnapuram High School with much-needed sanitation. This is an incredible achievement for a small group of people who have had to train through ice and snow. Their commitment can be seen in their individual stories. The Hart Family raised over £1,000 to help Wherever the Need provide sanitation to those who need it most. Not only did the Hart Family do a fantastic job of raising funds, they encouraged friends to run the Bath Half too. Each member of the family finished in an impressive time, securing an extra £400 in sponsorship. Despite being hampered by a foot injury, Will finished the race just 5 minutes later than Nick and Chris. Emma Davey and Laura James documented their Bath Half journeys by blogging about their experience running ...
How two determined school girls in India are helping us bring eco-toilets to their community
Anaivari is a small rural village in Tamil Nadu, India, and its story is very familiar to us. Home to 171 families the community is extremely poor – there is no sanitation, which means that the local environment and water sources are polluted, spreading illness and disease. [caption id="attachment_6863" align="alignright" width="214" caption="Without sanitation, water and the environment becomes polluted"][/caption] Two teenage girls from Anaivari attend the nearby girls’ secondary school in the town of Chandra – a school where we worked to build eco-sanitation facilities for its 1200 pupils. Before the toilets were built girls attending the school had no option but to use nearby wasteland, which was a breeding ground for disease and where they risked being attacked. A lack of safe, private sanitation facilities meant that pupils were often kept away from school (especially once they reached adolescence) missing out on vital education. The new school facilities have been in use for almost a year now and in that short time there has been a reduction in sanitation-related sickness such as diarrhoea and, because parents know their children can go to the toilet in privacy and safety, there has been a reduction ...
Our new animation, featuring Baroness Glenys Kinnock
Here at Wherever the Need, we continue to champion sustainable sanitation as the most efficient way to alleviate poverty. Whilst we continue to give some of the poorest people in the poorest countries a fighting chance, our progress is slowed because many people are unfamiliar, ill informed or turned off by the topic. Our last news article focused on the importance of sanitation within the context of providing people with an effective education programme, and highlighted the improved enrolment rates of young girls by providing them with hygienic and safe sanitation facilities. Our new animation looks at the bigger picture. The animation, created with the help of Bradley Bailey, will generate awareness of the issues surrounding inadequate sanitation and clearly explain how a toilet can change a life. In order to do this, we’ve presented the information in a vibrant, exciting and engaging way. After seeing an early draft of the animation, Baroness Glenys Kinnock kindly offered to narrate it. In reference to the animation, Glenys Kinnock said: “I am delighted to be able to help its efforts through this informative and fascinating animation”. Glenys added: “Wherever the Need is ...
Introducing an innovative sanitation project
Tamil Nadu, on the south east coast of India, is considered to be one of the wealthiest states in the country, but behind the economic and industrial growth lies another story – one of acute poverty. We have started to work with six of the poorest villages in rural Tamil Nadu. Not a single family in these communities have access to a toilet, which means that the local environment and water sources are polluted, spreading illness and disease - diarrhoea remains one of the biggest killers of children in the region. So what are we doing? We are putting Sanitation First, and working to make sure every person in all six villages has access to good sanitation facilities. We are building ecosan (composting) toilets for each and every family within the villages. Why is this innovative? What's new and exciting is that we are providing a sanitation service to maintain the programme. We are employing a care-taking team to empty the toilets and make sure the facilities are well-maintained and clean. How do we pay for this? This is the great bit - there ...
Sanitation facilities improving school attendance in rural India
At Wherever the Need we have always made it clear that sanitation should come first, because the only sustainable way to address issues of poverty is to tackle them at the point at which they originate. Whilst education is of critical importance to improving lives and alleviating poverty, effective learning can only take place when students are well enough to attend school and concentrate in lessons. But it is now widely accepted that illness created by inadequate sanitation damages school attendance and education levels. A month ago, we conducted a survey of attendance at girls’ schools in rural India, following the introduction of our new eco-sanitation facilities. The increased attendance figures proved that providing schools with sanitation facilities results in better health and better attendance. On average, there has been an increase of almost 15% in girls’ school attendance since sanitation facilities were available. [caption id="attachment_6209" align="alignright" width="608" caption="Attendance at Vadalur Girls' School has increased by 7% since Wherever the Need installed eco-sanitation facilities."][/caption] A notable example is the Orathur School, in Tamil Nadu. Since we installed new toilets in 2010, we have seen an incredible 30% increase in attendance. This ...
Sohail Rahman Reports on India’s Sanitation Problems
Reporting for Al Jazeera, Sohail Rahman covers the sanitation problems facing India, which become increasingly pressing as population growth and urbanisation continue apace. Broadcasting from New Delhi he exposes the shocking statistics, including the fact that over 50% of Indians do not have access to a clean, constructed toilet and how 60% of all defecation in the world occurs in India. It is also demonstrated how this is not just an individual issue, as the World Bank reported last year that poor sanitation cost the country $54 billion as a result of the related health issues, decreased productivity and reduced tourists. You can now watch the short clip below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI_Q0ejCd7Y
Ripples London to Paris Bike Ride
You may well have heard about our partnership with Ripples Bathrooms, who are helping to raise funds for our project in the village of Arasur in Tamil Nadu, India. Well the fundraising recently reached new gruelling highs with Paul Crow, Managing Director of Ripples Ltd, cycling unsupported from London to Paris. The 200 miles trip, via Newhaven, Dieppe and Giesors, took him three days, during which he burnt around 15,000 calories and ground through 70,000 pedal strokes. His trip was recently featured in both the West Wilts and the South Wilts Magazines, a copy of which you can find below. If you would like to support Paul you can donate below. You can donate online using paypal below. Thank you! Please donate... Yes No Are you a UK taxpayer and can we claim gift aid? Would you like to receive our occasional newsletter?
UK Government Recognises Sanitation as Human Right
The World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund in their 2012 Joint Monitoring Programme report estimated that over 1/3 of the world's population do not have access to adequate sanitation. The WHO also estimates that 1.4 million children are dying from diarrhoeal disease every year, the vast majority of which is due to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene; yet access to sanitation is one of the most off-target Millennium Development Goals. Following a review of international law, under the remit of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the UK government has formally recognised access to Sanitation as a human right under international law. In accordance with this, the Secretary of State for International Development (Andrew Michell) has committed to doubling the UK's ambitions on water, sanitation and hygiene to reach at least 60 million people by 2015. Hopefully this commitment by the UK government will mean that many of these deaths, which are mostly preventable with innovational projects such as WTN's Ecosan initiatives, can be avoided. If you, like the UK government, feel that sanitation is not getting the recognition the issue merits, please begin supporting us today, by signing up to follow us online (Facebook, ...
WTN ecosan featured in Nature journal
This is an exciting week for us, as our work has been published in Nature - the global journal of science. The article, credited to Shunmuga Paramasivan from our Indian office, is a good introduction to our work and how we use education/schools as a method to teach good hygiene practices through our ecological sanitation systems. Read the article in full here
Our First Ever Annual Report Has Landed!
We are pleased to announce that we can now release our first ever annual report. This represents something of a milestone for Wherever the Need and reflects the development of our organisation as our work expands in India, Kenya and Sierra Leone. In our report you will find further explanations of why we put Sanitation First as well as updates on our work, including examples of some Ecosan projects in India, water projects in Kenya, and livelihood projects in Sierra Leone. You will also find out how your support has helped us as well as break-downs of how we have distributed your money. You can find the annual report here: http://wherevertheneed.org.uk/about/reports-publications
Our Marathon Champions
Fundraiser Updates We have recently had four fantastic supporters running and fundraising for Wherever the Need - with all of them beating the pain barriers to complete their runs! Firstly we had Victoria Tyler running the London Marathon, who had a particularly challenging 4 and a half hours after tearing her thigh muscle at only the 7 mile mark and hobbling the remaining distance. She had less issues with her fundraising however, successfully raising £3,665 for our charity. Secondly we had Oliver Gould running the Bath Half twice in one day, in memory of his friend Jessica Gunn, successfully battling through a knee injury to complete both runs in 2 hours 30 minutes, and raising over £1200 for WTN. And lastly we had Jemima and Ellie House running their first ever half marathon (lets hope it isn't their last), and successfully raising a fantastic £400. Thank you to all of them, and if you would wish to donate further to their causes you can do so below.
Charity Winter Ball Update
Winter Ball raises £85,000 for project in India In December 2011, over 460 people gathered for the Just Need Ball at The Dorchester Hotel in London, to support the work we are doing in India. Organised by an experienced committee made up of well known figures in the commercial property field, the evening, at which Michael Portillo was the guest speaker, was a great success and raised a total of £85,000 to spend on projects. The money raised will be going to create much needed infrastructure in several slums on the periphery of Pondicherry in the State of Tamil Nadu, in the south-east of India. Our major focus is the provision of sanitation and clean water as the foundation to helping people work their own way out of poverty; after all, who is able to work hard to improve their lives (be it in education or employment) if they are constantly ill? This particular area was chosen as it is an extension to an earlier successful project run in the same district. Not only will more than 1,300 people have access to sustainable sanitation and 2,500 people be provided with ...
Always a champion in our eyes
As the Bath half Marathon draws near, we are lucky enough to have some wonderful supporters running to raise funds for Wherever the Need's work. Oliver Gould is one such person, running the half-marathon twice in one day in memory of his good friend Jessica Gunn, who was sadly taken from her family and friends last Summer. Oliver remembers that "there are two things that Jessica was hugely passionate about throughout her life, the beauty of Nature and people. Her love for these two things really defined her by showing us all how enormously gentle and caring she was". Jessica was a supporter of one of Wherever the Need's collaborative projects in Kenya, which Oliver is choosing to support in memory of her. Please help us support Oliver, by donating through his Virgin Money Giving page or by cheering him on the day!
Exclusive Art Offer
London gallery IAP Fine Art is offering you £50 off the normal £550 purchase price for a limited edition Chris Gollon print. From each purchase £150 will be donated to Wherever The Need * There are only 40 of the 100 silk-screen prints left, each signed and numbered by the artist. This wonderful image of Albert Einstein is an official study for the painting 'Einstein & The Jealous Monk' by Chris Gollon, now hanging in the permanent collection of Huddersfield Art Gallery alongside works by Bacon, Sickert and also Sir Jacob Epstein's bust of Einstein. The critical acclaim for Chris Gollon's work is growing. He and his gallery are long-term supporters of ours and we are thrilled that they are continuing to help Wherever the Need. To purchase one of these beautiful silk-screen prints (unframed) simply buy online from IAP Fine Art, London. To get your £50 discount and to ensure £150 is donated to WTN, at the online checkout enter the discount code: WTN2012 If you prefer to buy a framed print, contact David Tregunna at IAP Fine Art (
Winter newsletter 2011-2012
In our summer newsletter, we focused on the trip David (CEO) had just made to India. In this latest newsletter we explain a little more fully what we are doing in Africa based on Richard’s (Director of African Development) most recent visit. He managed to combine a trip to both Kenya and Sierra Leone and there are many contrasts between the two countries. Kenya is one of Africa’s powerhouses, while Sierra Leone is anything but. However, even in the relative prosperous Kenya the majority of people have an extremely difficult life, made all the more difficult by acute water shortages caused by increasing drought conditions. In contrast Sierra Leone, at least in the region in which we work, has abundant rainfall, but little or no infrastructure and a population that is among the poorest in the world. However, regardless of the country the basis of our work is the same – using sanitation, water and livelihoods to help people out of poverty. It is the good health and income generation model that we employ successfully in every project. Read the newsletter here (PDF 2.7mb)
Emergency Cyclone Appeal
India Cyclone - Emergency Appeal You may have heard on the news about the cyclone that recently devastated south-east India. Tamil Nadu, the region in which many of Wherever the Need's projects are based, has been badly hit - the cyclone has devastated the lives of the people and communities with whom we work so closely. Infrastructure, services and facilities are severely impaired and damaged; towns and villages are without electricity and clean water; many people have been left homeless. Water supplies are polluted and there is a genuine concern that there will be an outbreak of diseases such as diarrhoea or cholera We want to use our expertise and knowledge of the region to get sanitation and water facilities to where they are most needed and we need your help. Please donate now. Please donate... Yes No Are you a UK taxpayer and can we claim gift aid? Would you like to receive our occasional newsletter?
A message from India
Following a recent visit to some of our projects in India, Hardeep Sandher writes of her experiences during her time there. Read the full Property Week article here (PDF 2.1mb) <strong>or click to enlarge:</strong>
2011 Summer Newsletter
Read our Summer Newsletter for a run-down on our recent work in India. Click the newsletter to enlarge Read the full newsletter here (PDF 1.4mb)
The Big Garden Give
Thanks to the Big Give, for one day only, Sir Alec Reed will open his award winning Manor House gardens to the public. Join them for a chance to see these magnificent gardens, and even enjoy a picnic or cream tea in the grounds. Tickets are £5 each, and can be bought from the Big Give here. Upon entry, the Big Give will give each visitor a £5 gift voucher to give to a charity of your choice on theBigGive.org.uk - please choose Wherever the Need! Date: Sunday 21st August 2011 Time: 2pm - 5pm Find out more here.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation expands its sanitation programme
"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Tuesday it is to invest millions of dollars in improving sanitation services in poor countries over the next few years. The foundation is to significantly expand its sanitation programme with a $42m grant scheme to spur innovation in this area and a greater emphasis on encouraging behaviour change in communities. An estimated 2.6 billion people do not have access to safe sanitation and more than 1 billion people are understood to defecate in the open. In a speech to the AfricaSan 3 conference in Rwanda on Tuesday, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundation's global development programme, said: "No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by the invention of the toilet. But it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world. What we need are new approaches, new ideas. In short, we need to reinvent the toilet." The foundation, in partnership with governments, universities, the US development agency, USAid, and the African Development Bank, wants to encourage the development of relevant tools and technologies that will improve basic sanitation, such as waterless toilets that do not ...
Urine fertilising crops and saving money in India
"Consider these facts about urine: Adults produce about four to eight cups (one to two liters) per day, it's a reservoir of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, the same elements that nourish crops; and it's cheap to make. That's the kind of information that Sridevi Govindaraj, an Indian agriculture expert, had in mind when she proposed that dousing fields with urine could improve sanitation and boost farmers' incomes. “Human urine is indeed not an unwanted waste, but it is a useful resource,” Sridevi wrote to E4C. Urine, it turns out, is a huge and mostly untapped reserve of crop fertilizer. If Indians collected and applied 40 percent of their urine, the country could save $26.7 million (1.2 billion rupees) in fertilizer costs, Sridevi calculates. A unique field Those figures are from her doctoral thesis at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore in 2009, with research funded by the Arghym foundation. Sridevi may be the only person in India with a doctorate in ecological sanitation. The urine proposal She proposes using urine in conjunction with regular fertilizers. People would collect it in specially rigged toilets, like EcoSan latrines. Or, in lieu of a commercial product, DIY attachments to toilets in the men's room ...
Gates Foundation: Innovation and the waterless toilet
Eco-sanitation, the main focus of our work at Wherever the Need, is being researched by the Bill Gates Foundation..... Scientists working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are researching the many different ways human waste can be put to good use — such as powering electrical current with human excrement, or purifying urine into drinking water. Read whole article Source: Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
Private sector has potential to aid development, but beware the pitfalls
The Department for International Development (DFiD) wants to focus on the private sector but it must look closely at the risks. The private sector is not accountable to the public in the way the public sector is. Sanitation and water systems are often not available for the poorest people – and private developers cannot be held legally accountable for not offering them. The UK's Department for International Development awarded Vodafone funding to set up a mobile banking project in Kenya in 2003. DfID is keen to get the private sector involved in development projects. Read whole article Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Donor aversion to ‘unsexy’ water projects threatens development goal
"More than 1 billion people will not get the basic sanitation and the clean water promised as such projects shrink sharply as a proportion of global aid budgets. A key development goal to halve the number of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015 will be missed by a long way because donor countries have diverted aid money away from "unsexy" water projects, according to the World Bank and a report from the charity WaterAid. Financial aid to provide people in developing countries with access to clean water and decent sanitation has been shrinking sharply as a proportion of global aid budgets, the new research has shown, with the result that more than 1 billion people will not get the assistance they were promised by rich countries under the millennium development goals. The key development goal on sanitation is likely to be missed by a wide margin, as donors restrict their aid to "sexier" projects such as schools and hospitals – even though the benefits of those projects are much diminished if their recipients have no clean water or toilets. "When you think that 2% of GDP is the difference between growth and recession, we are having the equivalent of three recessions every ...
Ecosan toilets for 2,000 people in India
In November 2010, we held a large fundraising event which raised £40,000, enabling us to build individual ecosan (composting) toilets for 2,000 people in the village of Kanur, Tamil Nadu, India. The Doorway to Dignity charity auction was a great success, auctioning off unique pieces of artwork from artists, musicians, celebrities, fashion designers and politicians; we had contributions from Annie Lennox, Kenneth Branagh, Ralph Steadman, Maggie Hambling and world-renowned shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, to name but a few. Visit the project page and see more pictures
Fiona Bruce narrates our new film
Well known BBC newsreader and presenter Fiona Bruce is the voice-over for our latest film, "Independence, not Dependence". The video gives an introduction to who we are, what we do and why we do it. We believe in creating the conditions to allow people to become empowered and independent in their way out of poverty, not becoming dependent upon foreign aid. Find out more by watching the film below.
A mile (or 20) in their shoes
It's not every 10 year old girl that will go to great lengths to help those less fortunate, but Ami Northam is determined to make a difference in others' lives. Driven by a desire to help school children of her own age in Africa, Ami is taking on the challenging task of walking 20 miles in one day in order to raise money for much needed school equipment. Aiming to raise £1,750, Ami's fundraising efforts will help to equip the newly built Koiva Primary School in Sierra Leone with school textbooks, furniture and writing materials so that the children there can have a proper education. During the civil war which ended in 2002, schools across Sierra Leone were destroyed and equipment stolen. Many schools today throughout the country are still in real need of assitance, and Koiva School is no exception. To find out more about the school Ami will be helping click here. Her walk will take place on June 12th 2011, so please take the time to read about Ami's efforts and support her. You will find more information and details on how to donate here: www.wherevertheneed.org.uk/donate/ami-northam/ Good luck Ami!
WTN co-founder #6 in Independent’s Happy List
Wherever the Need co-founder Andy Barrs (pictured left) made it to #6 in the Independent's 'Happy List' this year - a fantastic achievement which we are all proud of. The 'Happy List' is produced annually in contrast to the well-known Sunday Times Rich List, naming 100 "outstanding examples of people who volunteer, care, educate, or do something special to make Britain a more contented, better-adjusted, and supportive place". The list celebrates "the people who put good work ahead of fat profit...(and) honours whose who give back, rather than take; those who help others or do something worthwhile without thought of enriching themselves, and, in many cases, at considerable personal cost." Find Andy's name in the list, and find out more here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-iiosi-happy-list-2011--the-100-2280696.html
Cleaning Delhi through Facebook
"When 22-year-old Piyush Goyal posted his complaint of garbage spilling over from the dump in his area, on the Facebook page of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), little had he expected the civic agency to take action within 24 hours. But it did, pleasantly surprising Goyal. MCD launched its Facebook page earlier this month to ensure effective monitoring of garbage lifting at areas under its jurisdiction. The civic agency has started off on the surest of footing, Goyal feels. “When I heard about this initiative, I thought I should also post pictures of unclean dhalao (standalone garbage warehouse) in my area. I was expecting the action but never thought it will be so quick,” he says. On January 8, he clicked pictures of the seven dirty ones in South Delhi’s R K Puram area and posted them on Facebook. And the next day, he says, he saw the pictures of clean dhalaos uploaded by the MCD. “There is lot of transparency through this way. The man who actually cleans it asked me why I uploaded the pictures. So the information is going from top to the bottom,” says Goyal. It’s a not even a month, and the civic agency has already received close to ...
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The Summer of Love
Win a £500 donation this summer through Virgin Money Giving. This summer, Virgin Money Giving are spreading the love by giving away £2,000 in donations to help you raise more for ...
