INDIA: MICROFINANCE FOR BUILDING TOILETS
Our Field Partner : Milaap
In 2016, we made a field trip to India to meet the recipients of the loans and also audit our local partner organization, Milaap. Milaap (Hindi word for “unity”) is an Indian microloan company that partners with credible grass-roots organizations to identify deserving borrowers and review their loan needs. The borrowers are then linked to people across the world who are willing to fund them. 100% of the funds contributed is divided up into individual microloans of $50-$200 to help families build toilets in their houses or community spaces. 100% of the funds are re-paid back to our Milaap account to be re-submitted as new loans. The borrowers are charged a very affordable 5% interest rate per annum.
Microfinance Partner : Guardian
Guardian based in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India is the world’s first and only microfinance institution with exclusive focus on water and sanitation. Guardian provides credit for household piped water connections and toilets, water purifiers and other innovative solutions based on local demands and constraints. Today it has established credit for over 18000 water connections and sanitation facilities widening its presence to more than 150 villages.
Micro-Loans:
Less than a third of people have access to sanitation in India and over 175,000 children under five die from diarrhoeal diseases every year. A toilet at home is a basic sanitary facility that most people are not able to afford in rural villages of Tamil Nadu, India. The monthly income per household is around Rs 8000 (~US$150) out of which 70-90% is spent on fulfilling essential expenses like food and education. The only solution for such families to achieve the dream of having a toilet is to take a loan.
With a generous $1000 donation from Sun Custom Restoration, Sanitation for All provided loans to 8 such families in Trichy,India for constructing toilets. This would mean a more productive start of a school or work day and a better standard of sanitation for their villages.
Findout more about our microfinance initiatives in India by visiting our profile on millap.org at - SFA Micro-finance Profile
Kamala and Jothimani live with their four children just outside of Trichy. Sanitation for All provided them a loan of Rs.10,000 (~$180) to install a toilet in their home. A toilet will improve their hygiene and the sanitation in their neighborhood, and will give them the luxury of taking care of their needs in private.
Meet Laxmi and Tamilarasi and hear the stories of change
Malarmani and her family of four do not have toilet access in their home. Multiple times daily, they defecate in open under unhygienic conditions. A loan of Rs.10,000 (~$180) provided by Sanitation for All will provide Malarmani and her family a toilet, instantly improving their quality of life by providing this basic necessity. Malarmani doesn't have to worry especially in the dark when she or her family go out in the open to defecate.
Rani and her husband work as day laborers in Trichy. They have 2 children in school. They do not have access to toilets and have to walk far from home just to find a private and clean open space. Sanitation for All provided them a loan of Rs.10,000 (~$180) to install a toilet in their home. The toilets will greatly increase their quality of life and allow them to defecate with privacy and dignity.
INDIA: WOMEN ONLY ECO-SANITATION TOILETS-2009
Project:
In 2009, IHSAN received some empowering news from the field! Thanks to funding from individual members, construction was finished and a new women-only eco-sanitation toiletfacility was opened! IHSAN donations sponsored a project which provides Eco-Sanitation toilets for 750 women in the Tamil Nadu State of India.
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. This project, completed in early-2009 provided Eco-sanitation toilets for women living in the Cuddalore Old Town area in the Tamil Nadu State of India, which is severely affected by extreme poverty. IHSAN partnered with Wherever the Need to complete this project. One four-stall unit is used by approximately 300 women and children and cost only $6,000. An individual donation of 50 USD by individual members in this project provided clean and safe sanitation facilities for two women and/or children for their entire lifetime.
Our Field Partner : Wherever the Need
David Crosweller and Andrew Barrs founded Wherever the Need in 1997 to provide humanitarian aid to those in need. From our work over the following eight years we began to identify that the underlying problem keeping people in poverty was ill-health due to a lack of sanitation and water facilities. With this knowledge, we feel our real work started in 2005 when we were introduced to something that fitted our belief structure; a long-term sustainable solution to poverty called ecological sanitation or ecosan for short. Since then our focus has remained on providing ecosan, clean water and livelihood programmes in a manner that allows people to work their own way out poverty. For more information please visit: www.wherevertheneed.org.uk
Eco-San toilets after construction
Technology Spotlight:
Eco-sanitation/compost toilets are comprised of a raised platform above two chambers, one full and composting, alternating with a second chamber. Organic material is regularly added to the chambers to add carbon for composting, to oxygenate the composting process and neutralise odours. It takes roughly a year for pathogen free compost to be produced which is then used as fertilizer for agricultural projects. A pipe takes urine into a separate chamber where it may then be used to make pellets which aid and nourish soils for crop growth.
For more pictures and information please check the report from Wherever the Need-