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While most of our projects were completed in 2010, IHSAN has been monitoring the sustainability and success of the projects throughout 2011 to learn valuable lessons on project sustainability vital for our future projects. We are now in a position to report not only the intent of our projects but the impact as well!
Thanks to a generous donation by new corporate sponsor Triple Canopy, and with the assistance of Iraqi and foreign volunteers, IHSAN is sponsoring the deployment of a Better Water Maker (BWM) system in the province of Basra, Iraq. Suffering from drought and a shortage of water to meet the growing needs of agriculture and communities, the south of Iraq was recently declared "an environmental disaster."
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While we cannot make a difference in the lives of all of those suffering, we can help a few families, and hope the project will expand into assisting entire communities. IHSAN will purchase the BWM and provide a small-grant for an entrepreneur university student looking to conduct research on water needs while promoting clean drinking water and earning an income. The BWM will be used to provide safe drinking water that can be bottled and sold to families and communities for a price much less than imported bottled water or government-provided water. If the pilot program is successful, with the help of project partner B9 Plastics, IHSAN will roll out additional BWM microloan programs. This project costs $3,500 and includes the BWM, bottling equipment, mentoring, transportation of the goods, and local marketing. Microloan recipients will be chosen by a board of IHSAN volunteers, University of Basra faculty, and local NGO staff.
In 2008, IHSAN volunteers conducted a trial project introducing BWM equipment, donated by B9 Plastics, to boarding schools in Kenya. The incident rates of diarrhea and other ailments caused by water-borne diseases decreased significantly through use of the BWM. While the BWM pilot program was successful in that regard, IHSAN was unable to gain the empirical data needed on usage of the equipment for future projects.
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With the assistance of research conducted by the IHSAN Student Chapter at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), a detailed business plan with research components was developed to expand the BWM into more disadvantaged communities in Kenya. During their summer 2010 internships in Malewa, WPI student volunteers will partner with Skills Venture and Malewa Trust NGO to bring these business plans to fruition. The project will cost approximately $10,000 and will include equipment, materials, and microloan grants for the deployment of six BWM projects throughout the region. WPI volunteers will raise funds for their travel.
In early 2009, by corresponding with local communities, WPI students also finalized a research paper for a sustainable Small Business Enterprise addressing hygiene and sanitation. The project involved a $750 microloan to a local Kenyan soap maker, Jane, to expand her business beyond her immediate community. The project plan helped her devise a business model and five-year plan for expansion.
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Thanks to a gracious individual donation of $750 from an IHSAN member in Sonoma, California, the project began in spring 2009. In only six months, Jane has used the money to purchase more equipment (helping the marketplace), hire local staff to assist (providing much needed jobs), and expand her sales to communities some 40km away—all while saving a percentage of her profits to pay back IHSAN for the microloan. That money will then be designated to Jane again for expansion or provided to another small business entrepreneur. During WPI’s student internships in summer 2010, they will assist Jane with marketing, distribution, and sales expansion plans, while commencing hygiene awareness programs for schools in the entire region. The hygiene education program will cost approximately $5,000. Also, in the future, IHSAN would like to sponsor more microloan projects in the region. For only $500 to $1,000, an IHSAN member can personally assist a disadvantaged community leader in establishing a business. Jane’s project shows the true footprint of IHSAN’s efforts: From the donation of an IHSAN member in California to a research plan by university students in Massachusetts to Skills Venture—a London-based small business development partner to a disadvantaged community in Kenya. Working together, we CAN make a difference.
Thanks to funding from individual members, construction was completed in early-2009 on a community eco-sanitation facility in the Tamil Nadu State of India which now serves the needs of 750 individuals on a daily basis.
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In India, it is estimated that at least 400 million people live on or below the poverty line and 52-percent of people do not have access to basic sanitation. Women and children experience the worst effects of this poverty. Through member donations, IHSAN sponsored a project which provides eco-sanitation toilets, bathing rooms, and clothes washing facilities for women living in the semi-urban area of Cuddalore Old Town in the Tamil Nadu State of India, which is severely affected by extreme poverty. Despite monsoon rains causing lengthy delays in the construction, the project was completed in early-2009. Although the project was designed for women and children only, the community recognized the need for a male area as well and built this into the design. A total of 750 people now use the facility daily (450 more than anticipated during design!) The community members maintain the complex themselves and charge each family a small fixed fee per month which pays for the sustainability of the complex. The compost will be sold to local farmers and the urine/water mix runs to a cottage garden near the complex from which the community sells produce. All funds from the compost and produce sales go back into the community which helps lift the entire community out of poverty.
Thanks to funding from individual members, phase one hygiene education was completed in 3Q08. IHSAN sponsored a sanitation and personal hygiene program to address the needs of more than 42,000 refugees residing in the Buduburam Refugee Settlement in Ghana.
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Aside from constructing billboards with sanitation and health messages across the camp, CBW also went door-to-door to educate camp residents on water and sanitation, waste management and litter control and environmental safety. CBW conducted post-project studies to understand how the messages were being received by camp residents and how successful and sustainable the project was at educating the greater community.
The results:
• CBW has reported trash/rubbish or waste management in general has improved over the period since they started with this phase of the sanitation project on the settlement.
• The misuse of drains and other public places has been tremendously reduced.
• The CBW garbage bins are in proper use due to the messages on the billboards and others means CBW have employed.
• According to one resident “we are responsible for many of our killer diseases only because we never knew what we been doing.”
Thanks to funding from Quantum Reservoir Impact and individual members, and the coordination of Project Partner Wherever The Need, IHSAN’s first Sierra Leone project was completed in May 2008.
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The project provided a new eco-sanitation toilet facility, a water hand-pump, and water, hygiene, and livelihood training in the Helebu Village of the Pejeh Chiefdom in Eastern Sierra Leone. This community of 1,700 people which lived under the poverty line was affected by lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation causing 2 out of every 5 children under 5 years old to die from water and sanitation related diseases. Thanks to IHSAN’s projects, the community now has the means for survival and tools to empower themselves for the future. This project is part of a larger program to provide water, sanitation, hygiene training, and livelihood programs to 17 villages comprising the entire Pejeh Chiefdom.
Thanks to funding from individual members and the Los Angeles IHSAN Chapter fundraiser, construction has been completed on five open dams in the Rift Valley. These dams are not only providing safe drinking water but much needed jobs to displaced people.
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These new dams will help many disadvantaged communities in central Kenya who are used to depending on the depleted Malewa and Turahsa rivers for their livelihood. This project will improve the health of individuals since clean drinking water is provided, women and livestock will not have to walk for long distances to find water, and farmers will be able to irrigate their land for better crop production leading to an improved income. The dams are a vital part of Malewa Trust’s (IHSAN’s Project Partner) environmental education program to teach local communities how to construct sustainable farms and water sources and teach children the importance of the environment. This project is part of a larger IHSAN campaign for the construction of 30 total open water dams, rainwater harvesting equipment and water education programs to provide access to water for over 20,000 people in the Malewa area of central Kenya. The funds raised by the Los Angeles IHSAN Chapter provided for two dams at the Kimbo School in Malewa valley. This not only means water for the school, but school girls will no longer have the miss classes to collect water from the rivers. They can now utilize water from the Kimbo reservoirs to meet their families’ needs.
IHSAN is sponsoring the installation of 5 PlayPump ® systems in Zambia. A PlayPump system can serve a community of approximately 2,500 people for a minimum of 10 years. Therefore, the cost of providing clean drinking water can be broken down to less than USD $6 per person.
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IHSAN is partnering with PlayPumps International, a dynamic, non-profit collaborative that forges innovative partnerships with individuals, foundations, companies, and governments to improve the lives of African children and families by providing access to clean drinking water, enhancing public health, and offering playground equipment. All this is achieved through an innovative piece of playground equipment: the PlayPump® water system. This life-changing invention can provide easy access to clean drinking water, lead to improvements in health, education, gender equality, and economic development, and bring joy to children. PlayPump systems are innovative, sustainable, patented water pumps powered by children at play. IHSAN looks to sponsor the first five Playpumps in Zambia. The cost of a PlayPump water system is USD $14,000. This one-time investment includes the costs for equipment, manufacturing, site evaluation and water testing, and installation. The price does not include the borehole which is usually an in-kind service from partners. A PlayPump system can serve a community of approximately 2,500 people for a minimum of 10 years. Therefore, the cost of providing clean drinking water can be broken down to less than USD $6 per person. Over the course of the guaranteed 10 years, this cost is less than USD $0.60 per person.
EMPOWERING NEWS!!! Thanks to funding from individual members, construction is complete on five open dams in the Rift Valley. This project is not only providing safe drinking water but much needed jobs to displaced people. The impacts on the communities are huge and fundraising for more dams is still underway. IHSAN is sponsoring the construction of 30 Dams, rainwater harvesting equipment and water education programs to provide access to water for over 20,000 people in the Malewa area of central Kenya. An individual donation of 50 USD will provide livelihood for one individual for their entire lifetime.
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Many disadvantaged communities in central Kenya depend on the Malewa and Turahsa rivers for their livelihood. However, with low rainfall, poor soils, denuded hillsides and a limited outlet for their produce, these communities have declining opportunities for survival. In addition, these two rivers are also the life line to tourism and the major horticulture and floriculture businesses at Lake Naviasha, on which Kenya’s economy depends. IHSAN is sponsoring the construction of 30 Dams, rainwater harvesting equipment and water education programs to provide livelihood to 20,000 people in the Malewa upper and middle catchment area. Ultimately, the project will improve the health of individuals once clean drinking water is provided, women and livestock will not have to walk for long distances to find water, and farmers will be able to irrigate their land for better crop production, leading to an improved income. Each dam, rainwater harvesting and education program costs approximately 25,000 USD. An individual donation of 50 USD will provide livelihood through water for one individual for their entire lifetime.
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| Donate today to the IHSAN-sponsored project of your choice. |
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| IHSAN is now accepting proposals for sustainable development projects in disadvantaged communities. |
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