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Water Centric is coming close to completing work in its initial ten schools, steadily delivering water, sanitation, and hygiene education to more and more school children in need. To take a look at our latest accomplishments…
Water Centric Found Lotika Paintal talks with Delhi school girls
The Gatehouse News Service and The Lexington Minuteman recently covered Water Centric’s work of delivering water, sanitation, and hygiene education to the neediest schools in India. Please take a look and follow the link to read the complete story!
Startup looks to battle issues of hygiene, water
By Michael Phillis/Staff Writer
Posted Aug 20, 2010 @ 12:20 PM
Lexington — The problem is massive. More than a billion people live without access to clean water and more than 2.5 billion don’t have access to sanitation facilities.
Lexington resident Lotika Paintal recognized the urgency behind the need of so many for accessible sanitation, personal hygiene, and clean water. For a year, when she worked for the Clinton Foundation, Paintal toured eight countries to see the extent of the problem.
To help change the problem and build a model for cultures to have better access to clean water and toilets, Paintal founded Water Centric, and opened an office in Lexington.
“We just started in 2008,” said Paintal who has focused her initial energy on helping schools. “It is an amazing amount of people who die and get sick from water born disease every day and every year. We started thinking about if someone was to make a difference, where would they start. Children in many countries come to school, theses schools don’t have water available. We thought that would be a good place to provide facilities and then teach them hygiene education.”
Paintal decided to develop a model in 10 schools in one of the worst parts of Delhi, India. Paintal said she toured one school, which taught about 1,000 girls. When she asked the school’s male principal what problems were facing the school, he took her outside and showed her.
“These girls are squatting outside, on the ground and I see four toilets that are locked up and that’s it. I asked him why these four toilets were locked up, he said, ‘they were built four years ago, they promised that the city sewer would be built but … it hasn’t,’” said Paintal.
To address the school’s problem, Paintal helped install a septic tank so the four toilets could function. She also built two additional toilets for the school. Which, according to Paintal, still wasn’t enough but was still much better than what was previously available.
The issue is especially important for girls. According to Paintal, in many countries, girls teach hygiene to their families and are also responsible for supplying water. The situation girls face when they don’t have basic facilities is harsh, intimidating, and can cause girls to drop out prematurely from school, according to Paintal.
“As far as school goes, if you squat outdoors, you can get rocks thrown at you from the males. When girls get older and they hit puberty, [the situation] is almost impossible … they don’t go to school for five days at a time, then they drop out.”
Sanitation, apart from being a source for human dignity, is a serious health issue. According to Water Centric’s website, diarrhea and other illnesses spread from contaminated water account for 1.8 million deaths per year. The vast majority of these deaths take the lives of children under five.
In many cases, basic equipment upgrades and education are better solutions than waiting for a large infrastructure project to be approved and completed, said Paintal.
“Rather than leaning towards some fantastic technology … or some big infrastructure projects, just the simple basics of water [are needed],” said Paintal. “Getting toilets to them, making it a priority in these developing nations.”
Water Centric works as a bridge organization between fundraising efforts in the United States and local NGOs on the ground in India. Paintal goes to India to oversee development and assist with the organization’s work three or four times a year.
“We work with a small NGO in India … they insure construction is done and they monitor hygiene. We have some collaboration with government officials who are in charge with the schools,” said Paintal. “We do training with the principals, we train teachers.”
Paintal has a Master’s in Education in international development from Harvard and another Master’s degree in intercultural relations from Leslie University. She has worked for Oxfam – one of the world’s larges NGOs – and was one of five people tasked with learning about the issue of sanitation for the William J. Clinton Foundation. She has worked in the non-profit field for 10 years.
“This problem really got to me,” said Paintal. “I couldn’t believe that systematically things weren’t being done.”
After talking to experts and traveling around the world to look into the problem, Paintal concluded that the best way to help impact the problem was to start her own NGO.
“It never really struck me how big an issue it is and how basic it is,” said Paintal. “Lets just get them water and toilets and a clean life.”
Water Centric’s “Bike-A-Thon and Cookout” at picturesque Great Brook Farm on July 31 is just 10 days away!
REGISTER TODAY and save $10!
- Adults – $20
- Students – $15
- Kids 10 and under – free
- Family cap – $50
Note: All rates will go up after July 29
Reasons to sign up right now:
- You’ll get a good workout -be it on your road or mountain bike or hiking the lovely trails!
- Fun with friends-old and new
- A delicious cookout partially sponsored by Red Bones, Bertucci’s, and Whole Foods
- You get to support a great cause!
- Participate in our raffle – watch this space for the wonderful prizes and sponsors!
Water Centric raises funds to support thousands of school children that are among the 1.2 billion people without clean water, and the over 2.6 billion people without sanitation or any form of toilets.
Your donations go directly to aid over 10,000 school children in Water Centric’s ten-school project in Delhi, India, which provides water stations, toilets, and septic tanks, along with the hygiene education — so essential to improving health and cleanliness – and giving young children the right start in life. Your donation is fully tax deductible as Water Centric is a 501c (3) non-profit organization.
You can see some of the impact Water Centric has been making in our short video.
REGISTER TODAY!
Save the Date for a Great Time and A Great Cause!
Network with new people, reconnect with friends and benefit a great cause!
NETSAP-Boston is holding a happy hour and fundraiser to benefit Water Centric schools at Pazzo Resturant and Bar on Newbury Street in Boston, on June 24, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
Part of the proceeds will go directly to Water Centric’s ten-school project in Delhi, India, which is delivering clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education to the 10,000 school children there. For more information on Water Centric, click on the following link: http://www.watercentric.org/
For more information on the happy hour venue, click on the following link: http://www.pazzoboston.com/
For more information on NETSAP-Boston, click on the following link: http://www.netsapboston.org/
We have been making steady progress at Water Centric with just over 2 years under our belt! Here is a look at what we have accomplished in the past few months…
Don’t forget to right click to print and carry!
Hey Boston area residents -
This May Day, Saturday, May 1, 2010, eat at Uno Chicago Grill in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and you will provide direct aid to over 1000 school girls who need clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education in their slum school in Delhi, India.
Here’s how it works:
- Print out the tickets above and give them to your friends/family/anyone.
- On May 1st, when anyone eats lunch, dinner, drinks @ bar,or does take-out and presents the ticket (during bill payment), WaterCentric will be given up to 20% of the sale amount.
Uno’s is at 22 JFK Street in Harvard Square in Cambridge.
Water Centric’s goal is to raise $6000 to improve the lives of over 1000 schoolgirls studying in a municipal school in Sri Niwas Puri area by renovating and building functional toilets and water stations in their school plus training the teachers and kids to participate in maintaining these new facilities via active student-run hygiene education clubs.
Enjoy your pizza – a tasty way to raise dough.
A thousand little girls will thank you!
Brand New Water Station
Over 1000 little girls now have a brand new water station at the Jasola Village Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) school in Delhi, India. The water station replaces a decades’ old station made of cement. It had only three faucets and no sink to stop the running water from splashing on the children, leaving puddles where mosquitoes breed.
The new station triples the number of water faucets, provides a sink shelf to catch the running water so that it doesn’t fall on the childrens’ clothes and shoes, and is lined with beautiful tile which dries more quickly and stays cleaner than cement.
The water station is used daily by the children for drinking water, to wash their hands, and clean their lunch dishes and cups.
Construction began on February 4, 2010, and was completed on February 26. Congratulations to our local partner Sakshi and to all the young users at the school!
Old, Dirty Water Station
Diwali, also known as “Festival of Lights,” is a time of celebration and thanksgiving in India, for victory of good over evil. This year, in honor of Diwali, on November 5 2010, Water Centric is hosting a six-month Twitter Diwali campaign – “Twiwali” - so that people can express their gratitude for the essentials of clean water and sanitation - while helping others to have the same - by making a simple donation and creating awareness through social sites like Twitter. What follows is one Water Centric volunteer’s account of why he is grateful for toilets. We encourage you to submit your stories on why you are grateful for toilets to our blog as well
A surreal bathroom experience!
By Bhaskar Koukuntla
On a cold November evening, my wife and I decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary by having dinner with a few of our family friends at the Mantra restaurant in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Mantra is very close to our respective work places and is conveniently nestled on a side street between the Theatre district and Downtown Crossing. We had heard a lot about this place as the only restaurant in Boston serving Indo-French cuisine, and that it is located in a building that was previously a bank constructed in the 1800’s. Their décor is unique and in fact their bar is a former “Teller’s cage.” Details of the décor include marble walls and floors, silk drapery, and exotic mirrors with beautiful lighting.
Upon arriving at the restaurant, I paid a visit to the Men’s Room. It was stunningly beautiful with elegant mirrors, very clean and exotic sinks, and elegant glass stalls. The doors to the individual stalls were made of what looked like translucent glass and looked beautiful. Once I stepped in, I was shocked that I could see the outside! My friend was at the sink washing his hands and he suddenly turned around, looked towards my stall and pointed his finger towards me and started laughing. I was shocked!!! I felt embarrassed and wondered how the restaurant could have not thought about this. I suddenly felt very vulnerable and awkward for such lack of privacy.
When I emerged, pretending that I had not noticed anything, my friend explained that you cannot look in from the outside, however the user can see out from inside the stall. This was trick décor with no compromise to privacy at all!! But just the illusion that my privacy was compromised had made me sick to my stomach.
Putting this surreal bathroom experience in perspective, millions of underprivileged families and kids around the world do not have access to the most basic sanitation facilities. They sit outdoors every day exposed to prying eyes and the elements! Water Centric is currently working towards constructing functional toilets for a school for 1433 girls in India. With a small contribution from all of us who are privileged and take such necessities for granted, we can make a change in the lives of all these kids! So this Diwali, spread some light by making a contribution at www.watercentric.org/Twiwali.html
Greetings!
I recently got back from visiting our schools in Delhi, India. While there, I admit I toggled between being overwhelmed by the desperate need in some of our large urban slum schools and experiencing a renewed zeal to tackle what we have set out to do at Water Centric. I reminded myself that to make any difference, given the 2.5 billion people in the world lacking access to basic sanitation, you always have to start with a first small step in the right direction!
The good news is that we have made significant progress in our goals these past 18 months. Take a look at our new December newsletter which highlights this progress and touches on some ways you can get involved. We hope you enjoy the video clip where young girls sing in their colorful scarves about hygiene education: yes, washing their hands is important. Enjoy!
Warm wishes for this holiday season,
Lotika
Link to newsletter
Water Centric finished renovation on a water station for school kids at the Julaina MCD School in Delhi. The old and decrepit station was no longer functioning properly. It leaked, the drains were easily clogged, the foundation area was moldy and unhygienic, it lacked a suitable shelf to collect the water, and there were insufficient taps.All that is in the past. Thanks to funds raised by H2O For Life and Water Centric, and for supervision of the project by its local partner Sakshi, the children have good access to clean water with a renovated and fully functional station. Now, the kids don’t have to get wet in order to get a drink of water and the station is no longer a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The kids are proud of their new facility!
You can follow the progression of this project in our photo journal below. Water Centric was launched in February 2008. Its first initiative is to help provide clean water, functional toilets/sanitation and hygiene education to 10 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools. This project serves the needs of 10,000 students, most of whom come from the poorest and most deprived communities.
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