World Toilet Day is a global day to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis. 4,000 children die every day from diarrhoea caused by dirty water and poor sanitation. About 2.6 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year.
World Toilet Day has been created by the WTO (World Toilet Organisation) as an annual celebration of toilets and sanitation and their vital contribution to public health, personal dignity and environmental sustainability.
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
19 November 2010
18 November 2010
What a great idea - a football that produces "real" energy!
Jessica Lin, Jessica Matthews, Julia Silverman and Hemali Thakkar met in an engineering class at Harvard University back in 2008. All four of them had spent time in different places in Africa and all of them saw kids playing and enjoing football whereever they went. Talking about their experiences Jessica, Jessica, Lin and Hemali somehow got the idea that is must be possible to translate the "positive" energy of football into "real" energy people in the world’s most impoverished areas could actually use to power light in their homes, a fridge, a phone and more. Thats how the idea of the "sOccket", a football with an internal generator, was born.
Soccket Electrifies! from GlobalGirl Media on Vimeo.
The ball’s mechanism is similar to those found in shake-to-charge flashlights. When the sOccket rolls, a magnetic slug slides back and forth inside an inductive coil in the ball, generating power that is stored in a capacitor.
After 15 minutes of play, the sOccket ball is currently providing enough energy for 3 hours of LED light, a clean, efficient alternative to kerosene lamps. Kudos, girls! Great project!
Soccket Electrifies! from GlobalGirl Media on Vimeo.
The ball’s mechanism is similar to those found in shake-to-charge flashlights. When the sOccket rolls, a magnetic slug slides back and forth inside an inductive coil in the ball, generating power that is stored in a capacitor.
After 15 minutes of play, the sOccket ball is currently providing enough energy for 3 hours of LED light, a clean, efficient alternative to kerosene lamps. Kudos, girls! Great project!
12 November 2009
BBC documentary podcast: A Dollar a Day
BBC journalist Mike Woodbridge travels to Nicaragua, Namibia & Nepal investigating why billions of people worldwide are trapped in the most persistent poverty. In three podcasts the poor describe their daily struggle that has been worsened by the global economic crisis.
A Dollar a Day - Part 1 (Wed, 4 Nov 09)
Duration: 24 mins
What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution. [more info & download]
A Dollar a Day - Part 2 (Wed, 11 Nov 09)
Duration: 24 mins
Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted. School enrolment has shot up, small businesses are springing up, and the nurse at the local clinic says malnutrition rates amongst the children have dropped. [more info & download]
A Dollar a Day - Part 3 (Wed, 18 Nov 09)
Duration: 23 mins
In Nepal, severe drought and unreliable monsoon rains have led to acute food shortages. The impact is felt most by people like Charuri who is struggling to feed three children and cannot afford the medical help she needs. [more info & download]
A Dollar a Day - Part 1 (Wed, 4 Nov 09)
Duration: 24 mins
What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution. [more info & download]
A Dollar a Day - Part 2 (Wed, 11 Nov 09)
Duration: 24 mins
Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted. School enrolment has shot up, small businesses are springing up, and the nurse at the local clinic says malnutrition rates amongst the children have dropped. [more info & download]
A Dollar a Day - Part 3 (Wed, 18 Nov 09)
Duration: 23 mins
In Nepal, severe drought and unreliable monsoon rains have led to acute food shortages. The impact is felt most by people like Charuri who is struggling to feed three children and cannot afford the medical help she needs. [more info & download]
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