Thirst For Knowledge
Thirst+Aid = 5 (Alive)
We are working with mothers to keep their children healthy and strong enough to celebrate their 5th birthday. We subsidize ceramic water filters and hygiene products for pregnant women and mothers with kids five and under. The Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage Network has done studies that show that if a child can make it to the age of five their immune system will be sufficiently developed to better deal with untreated water without life-threatening adverse reactions. A CWF (ceramic water filter) can provide enough safe water for a family of 6 for up to 5 years, which is even better than 1 child, $1, 1 year.
Thirst+Aid = “Tupperware Party 2.0 – Myanmar Style”
Another example of Thirst+Aid’s “outside the bottle thinking” Thirst-Aid staff collaborates with women to give them the skills and confidence to go into villages and host “Waterware parties”. The highly-trained hosts demonstrate various methods of purifying water, including using Thirst-Aid’s ceramic water filter. They use a wide variety of media in order to get the attendees as involved as possible, including videos and give away comics. Part of their presentation, like the Tupperware parties of the past, includes explaining how the audience can purchase the products to put into practice the knowledge they’ve learned. The result: an income boost for the “hosts” and healthier lives for the attendees. Thirst-Aid trainers Nyein Nyein, Winnie and Yo Har monitor the trainees, parties and visit many of the families to make sure they understand what was taught and are happy with their purchase.
Thirst+Aid = Relief for the Most Vulnerable
The Sagaing project is helping the area’s women’s pottery collective (one of the oldest cooperatives in Myanmar) to add the production of ceramic water filters to their skill set by facilitating the technology transfer process. This group of potters, despite their high level of skill, used to be dollar-a-day poor, but with new skills they have been able to increase their income potential and get out of debt, allowing them to end the cycle of poverty that they have been trapped in due to traditional money-lenders’ practice of charging high interest. Before making filters available, we will launch an extensive education initiative. Our trainers will teach key influential village women how to use our informational and educational materials to better share knowledge with other local families about the importance of using safe water and practicing good hygiene. Thirst-Aid will then purchase the first 2500 filters that meet our rigorous quality standards, and distribute the filters to the most vulnerable families in the area while providing families with greater income the opportunity to place an order.
Thirst+Aid = International-Level Quality Control
We collaborate with the producers of our ceramic water filters to help them improve their production methods. In this way, they can assure their clients that the filters they produce work as advertised. Aung Aung and Ko Ko Aung randomly select 5% of filters in every shipment to go through a series of quality control tests with them before they are shipped. Additionally, they conduct laboratory test on another 2% of filters produced and share the results with the producers.
Thirst+Aid = Educated and Healthier Children
Thirst-Aid educators go into orphanages and monastic and public schools to train teachers and students about the importance of safe water and good hygiene practices. We have developed three comic books and two cartoons to use in these training sessions.
NGO Training
Thirst-Aid offers free TOT (training of trainers) sessions as well as permission to reproduce any of our informational and educational materials to any NGO that orders filters.
NGOThirst+Aid Water Vendor Project (part of the “Drink Tank”)
Introduced a new way of getting potable water to the masses. In partnership with Oxfam, Thirst-Aid has introduced a H2O2/Silver solution to be added to water collected for delivery in villages across the country. Water vendors in Myanmar deliver between 7% and 15% of household water (depending on region). Until Thirst+Aid’s intervention they were delivering untreated and often dirty water. This innovative intervention transforms dollar-a-day poor water vendors into savvy “Safe Water Advocates.” TA also provides the initial supply of H2O2 to vendors so they don’t have to increase their price until their clients fully understand the benefits of consuming treated water.