My visit to the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation Headquarters in Delhi

Each morning, staff of the Sulabh Foundation gather for morning prayers. This particular morning, they had a special guest, ME!

Part of the congeration of the prayer. The ladies in blue are former human scanveners who had to collect human waste with their bare hands. Thanks to Sulabh Foundation, they no longet had to do this inhumane activity and are now getting free training in different economic activities

A group photo of members of Sulabh, students and staff of a Delhi College and of course MOI in the back

Sulabh Senoir Vice President Abha Bahadur explains the Foundation's twin pit technology to MOI

Sulabh Foundation has designed numerous models of the twin pit toilet to fit different sizes of the wallet

I am being given the technicailities of how the Sulabh toilet works. Unlike the conventional toilet, the Sulabh one has a steeper bowl such that it was only smaller quantities of water to flush meaning that millions or even billions of liter of water are saved

A water quality expert explains how the Sulabh Foundation has developed a technology that uses a water weed called duck weed to purity sewage water and at the same provides nutrients for fish. Fish when they feed on the weeds grow three times in size and are fit for human consumption

Buried under these beautiful flowers is a tank that is connected to the public toilet (not in the picture) and from it bio gas is generated after the gas passes through a number of processes 

This is the model of the bio gas technology that was designed by the Sulabh Foundation

After the human waste was been worked upon to extract the gas, effluent water remains and this is also passed through a number of processes to purify it. The end water comes out odourless and clear and though it is not suitable for human consumption, the nutrients in it is ideal for agriculture and horticulture and the secret behind the flourishing garden

AND THERE WAS LIGHT...Over 500 people use the public toilet located outside the premises of the foundation. The gas that is generated is was is lighting the mantle lamp. Imagine what this simple and very affordable technology can do to solve rural electrification and help developing countries meet their MDGs.

The bio gas is also ideal in heating during cold seasons

Using a combination of batteries and bio gas, the world would live in less darkness

Adjacent to the headquarters is a public school that is also run by the Sulabh Foundation. 60 percent of the students of the school are former human scavengers and the remaining 40 percent are from families that are too poor to afford school fees. Sulabh International provides free education to these students

The Sulabh Foundation is taking a holistic approach towards finding a sustainable solutiion to the sanitation and hygiene problems of India and other developing nations. It is for this reason that it has recently purchased a sanitary towel plant. At the moment they are in the familisation stage and are manufacturing towels for its students and staff. They plan to go big scale in a few months

This is a sanitary towel vending machine. Several thousands have been installed in a number of schools through a collaborative project between the government of India and Sulabh. Sanitation or the lack of it infringes more on women and girls for it doesn't only put them in danger of health but most importantly it denies them their basic human rights and their dignity

Being in the computer age, pupils of the public school are taught early how to use these gadgets and also the English language in order to know how to operate them 

The Sulabh campus over and above is a very inspiring place. To add icing on the cake, the foundation has a Toilet Museum. Mr Bageshwar Jha is its curator and believe me he is great at what he does. I am being briefed on the history of toilets

A toilet fit for kings! Mr Jha explained to me that during the olden days, this chair cum toilet was a great way for rulers to be close to their subjects in that they wouldn't have to be away from them when the need to answer the call of nature came.

The brain and engine behind the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak. Having read so much about him, it was indeed more than an honour to meet him in person. The foundation started in 1970 and has constructed 1.2 million pour flush toilets, constructed and maintained 7,500 public toilet cum bath complexes, built 200 human waste based biogas plants, has liberated more than a million human scavengers, made 640 towns scavenger free, trained 7000 scavengers, has four English medium schools and created employment for more than 30 million. Does he have to walk on water to prove he is a saint?

For the achievements that he has managed to pull over the years, this action should be reversed but I humbly bowed down and received it

Ooh I am almost blushing at this point, sweating buckets and my knees are knocking together like someone is tickling me with feathers on the soles of my feet

Fun fair as Sulabh team visits Anita Narre

Dr Pathak being welcomed by Anita Narre (in blue sari) and village local government head Lalita Narre

                                                        Anita addresses the villagers

               Sulabh ensured that the day belonged to everyone and it provided lunch for the whole village

Bride who fled hubby for having no toilet gets slapped with $4,000 award

MASEMBE TAMBWE in Bhopal

Good fortune couldn’t have come better to Anita Narre, the Indian now famed bride who ran away from her husband after finding that he didn’t have a toilet, after a local NGO slapped her with 4,000 US Dollars.

Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement Founder, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak travelled 500kms from Bhopal to present Anita the 4000 US Dollars cheque for what we termed as a ‘courageous yet very peculiar move’.

“This is the first time I have heard of an Indian woman leaving her husband because he didn’t have a toilet in the premises of his house. This move is usually not only an insult to her in laws but also to her parents but because of her cause, we have decided to award her,” he said.

Dr Pathak told journalists yesterday that he first learnt of the story, he was visibly intrigued by it and promised himself that he would give her the recognition she deserves for the bold step she took.

The Local Government Village Executive Officer, Ms Lalita Narre said that when she learnt that Anita had left her husband because of the lack of toilet facilities, she supported her out rightly.

She revealed that thanks to the bold move of Anita, in a space of two weeks, 95 out of 150 households that previously didn’t have toilet have now constructed toilets and the rest are underway.

“I am very proud of her and forever grateful to her because for years we have tried spreading awareness to the women on the importance of having toilets within the home but our efforts have always landed on empty ears,” she said.

Anita Narre explained that it took her only two days after moving in with her husband to reach the decision that unless her husband built a toilet, she would go back to her parents and not return until there was one.

She narrated that on her first day we had to walk 2km away from her house to go and ease herself and vowed that she wouldn’t undergo that torture everyday unless something was done.

“I grew up in an environment that had toilets within the premises of the homestead. I confided with my husband about my concerns and when I saw nothing was being done about it, I took matters into my own hand,” she said.

Her husband, Shevram said that he understood how she felt but at that time he wasn’t in the financial position to construct one but things changed when she left forcing him to seek assistance from the local government office and in eight days, one was constructed and the wife returned.

Ms Anita said that it was beyond her wildest dreams that her story would arouse so much media attention and she will be forever thankful to the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation for the token that they had awarded her.

“With this boost, I will now be able to construct a bathroom where my family and I can comfortably bathe from as well as give our house a facelift,” she said.

She said that it was her dream that a time would come where all women in India and other parts of the world have access to clean and hygienic toilet facilities and no longer have to walk long distances and at awkward hours to simply answer a call of nature.

A social worker stationed in Bhopal and a Sulabh employee, Ms Swati Khemaria said that Anita broke one of India’s biggest taboos, leaving your husband’s home and returning to your own unescorted and for something as mere as a toilet.

Ms Swati explained that in Indian tradition, once a woman is married, she belongs to her in laws and isn’t supposed to return to her parents irrespective to the conditions that she is facing at her in laws.

Open defecating is still one of the biggest challenges to sanitation in India and in many other parts of the world. It is estimated by the World Health Organisation that approximately 2.6 billion do not have toilet facilities in the world.

      

MISA TAN internet training for editors in a nutshell

The week has flown by like hot rod slicing through butter but the memories and lessons learnt are still very fresh. We, editors of different media houses and a handful of lecturers from journalism schools had a unique opportunity to get training on how the Internet and Social Media is changing the lives of people and traditional journalism (if you will allow the term).

I wouldn't want to down to every detail on what we were taught and therefore I will summary by sharing with you what I term the icing of the cake of the training, an audience with renonwed blogger Majid Mjengwa.

For a person so well known for his blog, it was quite enchantering to find him so humble and totally down to earth (Very untypical of a person from the great land of Bongo. Being famous in Bongo is a passport of disrespect people).

Anyways, Majid shared with us his experiences, the ups and downs of blogging and being a blogger espeically of social issues and gave us tips on being a part of the social media and tips of life.

I have to say it was very intriguing to see how he relates same things to a big picture. Take this for example. He asked why children always fall before they are able to walk. I scratched myself bald and still didn't come up with an answer. The answer was actually right there in front of us, children fall because they concentrate on their feet and not what's ahead of them.

Relate that Tanzania and the leaders that lead this nation. Are they forward looking people? Well you guess is as good as mine!

Two important tips to life and to blogging. One, always use your experience, it is the best teacher. Majid narrated a story to us about an experiment he conducted. He asked Tanzania and Swedish kids the same question, "If there are ten birds on a tree and you stone one down, how many remain?". Well, the Swedish kids said nine because it was simple mathematics but the Tanzanian kids said zero because they have experienced it, when you stone one down, the rest fly away.

Two, never discourage talent but unfortunately this is happening every other day in our homes. A child sings in the shower, the parents discourages them by saying that they have a voice of a crocking toad. When your child whilst doing their homework is also sketches the dress of her mummy, the father barks, demanding that they concentrate on their homework. 

In other words without mingling talent and experience in both your life and blogging, the possibility of reaching anywhere could be difficult. He left us with three values, know who you and where you are from, have belief in yourself and top above all DARE TO TRY. Don't be fooled by small achievements, there is bigger fish out there.

Tanzania has a long way to meet its sanitation needs

Believe it or not there are over 26 million Tanzanians that use unsanitary or shared latrines and 5.4 million have no latrine at all and are forced to relieve themselves in the open. Open defecation costs the country 46m US Dollars annually from this and between 60 and 80 percent of diseases requiring hospital attendance in the country are caused by water and sanitation related diseases. Without investing in the construction of toilets and latrines, 1 percent of the GDP will remain being lost annually.  

Will we ever get new Africa intellectuals with the current trends?

Dr. Dambisa Moyo is an international economist and New York Times best-selling author of a number books including her famous one entitled 'Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working'. Dr Moyo was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia and holds a Doctorate (PhD) in Economics from St. Antony's College,

Oxford University. 

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working basically urges that foreign aid has harmed Africa and that it should be phased out. The book became a New York Times bestseller and has been published in over seven languages including Polish and Greek.

The book describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa today and unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth.

In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined—and millions continue to suffer.

Provocatively drawing a sharp contrast between African countries that have rejected the aid route and prospered and others that have become aid-dependent and seen poverty increase, Moyo illuminates the way in which overreliance on aid has trapped developing nations in a vicious circle of aid dependency, corruption, market distortion, and further poverty, leaving them with nothing but the “need” for more aid.

In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa.

Dr Moyo in her book tried to boldly redesign the current model of international aid and proposes a new road map for financing development for the world's poorest countries that provide these countries a glimer of hope for economic growth and a decline in poverty and 'an addiction' to foreign aid.

Without being disrespectful to the author, personally I feel that the book (though I have to read it) was written with good intentions but certainly not for some African countries with Tanzania being on top of the list.

The book is certainly perfect great as food for thought for the donors and even better for forward looking countries as guidance for their development but I think Tanzania is too hooked to the 'illict drug called aid'.

Without mincing any words I have to say that Tanzania is stagnant without aid in spite of all the natural riches that we have. From her book Dr Moyo has attracted a lot of attention, partly because of the appeal of a new African intellectual emerging to comment forcefully and knowledgeably on issues affecting Africa.

Note the key words a new African intellectual,  with the constant strikes, student demostrations and 'raping' of publuc funds and not forgetting the rampant braindrain in this country we call Tanzania, where do we honestly get the new Tanzania intellectual, one wonders.

Allow to quote something from her book.

"Scarcely does one see Africa's (elected) officials or ... African policymakers ... offer an opinion on what should be done, or what might actually work to save the continent from its regression. This very important responsibility has, for all intents and purposes, and to the bewilderment of many an African, been left to musicians who reside outside Africa".

I think I better stop here before I end thrashing this computer out of vexation. I often wonder why we the electorate are dragged every other many years under the scorching sun of Dar es Salaam and other parts of the country to take part in electing a person who never has opinion about what should be done and an idea to save the country and continent.

With the increased strikes, maybe in 2015 we should have our own 'little' strike among the electorate, what do you think? It is after all the 'in-thing' in town! Come on who doesn't to be fashionable in this day and age of Black Berries, IPhones, IPad and all the rest of the gizmos and gadgets available?

   

Tanzanian newspapers must get out of their slumber

Its funny, its only been like a week when I was having a drink with the Information Officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees when we had a heated yet friendly debate about the future of Tanzanian newspapers or rather their demise.

His take was that Tanzania newspapers are literally hanging on a thread and its only a couple of years for online publications to totally take over. He revealed to me that he had virtually stopped buying hard copies of newspapers and was reading everything online and it won't be too long until newspaper sales will hit rock bottom.

Personally I feel that newspapers will not suffer the same fate as that of dinosaurs of ever being extinct. I agree that there sales will drastically reduce as trends are already showing but disappearing altogether...naaaaa!

Reading Rupert Murdoch's speech that he read in 2005 was sure a wake-up call and to be honest its quite interesting that what he said over seven years ago are now just starting to pop up in Tanzania.

As the Internet gets deeper rooted in the lives of people, evidence shows that consumers of news between the ages of 18-34 are increasingly using the web as their medium of choice for news consumption.

Statistics show that only 9 percent describe newspapers as trustworthy, a scant 8 percent find newspapers useful, and only 4 percent of respondents think newspapers are entertaining.

Stop for a minute and try to ingest this information. Without being too rude, these numbers simply say that we in this profession and business are feeding crap (to put it mildly) to our audience and that we don't have the faintest clue who these people are and what they want.

Allow me to quote from Mr Murdoch's speech.

"Thinking back to the challenge that television posed to the newspaper business, we can see some similarities. A new technology comes along, and like many new things, it is somewhat exciting at first, simply by virtue of being new. Like the advent of radio before it, television was always going to be at best an alternative way to get the news, and at worst a direct competitor. There was no way to make it a part, or even a partner, of the paper.

That is manifestly not true of the internet. And all of our papers are living proof. I venture to say that not one newspaper represented in this room lacks a website. Yet how many of us can honestly say that we are taking maximum advantage of those websites to serve our readers, to strengthen our businesses, or to meet head-on what readers increasingly say is important to them in receiving their news?"

Again much as this speech was read seven odd years and for the American audience and setting, in today's Tanzania, these are the questions that we should be asking yourselves today. In many aspects of the Tanzanian society today, innovation and invention are two words constantly being used, it is my belief that with their right usage, newspapers and online edition can work hand in hand without the other losing out.

I totally agree with Mr Murdoch when he said that, "The challenge, however, is to deliver news in ways consumers want to receive it. Before we can apply our competitive advantages, we have to free our minds of our prejudices and predispositions, and start thinking like our newest consumers".

Murduch couldn't have put it better when he said," The challenge for us – for each of us in this room – is to create an internet presence that is compelling enough for users to make us their home page. Just as people traditionally started their day with coffee and the newspaper, in the future, our hope should be that for those who start their day online, it will be with coffee and our website".

The battle is on, let's pick up our arms and charge!