Thirst-Aid

Thirst-Aid has developed one of the most comprehensive and holistic approaches to point of use water treatment in the industry.

Thirst-Aid views the need to purify water in developing countries as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. Thirst-Aid employs the need for water improvement as an entry point by which to introduce new skills, develop small businesses and stimulate local economies whiles simultaneously introducing appropriate safe-water technologies and public health education to the population as a whole.

While many organizations focus on one technology or another to purify water, Thirst-Aid advocates for the bundling of technologies and realizes that education, training, and social marketing to promote behavior change comprise 90% of the issue in the adoption of safe-water practices.

To address this concern, Thirst-Aid precedes the introduction of all safe water technologies with the Thirst-Ed program. Developed in cooperation with UNICEF, Thirst-Ed integrates the need to educate and inspire the drive for improved water with the beneficiaries desire to be a stakeholder. By offering an education and social marketing program that not only raises awareness of waterborne illnesses and improved hygiene but also provides participants with the means to purchase their ceramic water filters, the Thirst-Ed program guarantees an increase in behavior change and sustained product use.

Thirst-Ed allows participants to apply the time they spend attending safe water classes to-wards the purchase price of a ceramic water filter unit, thus turning education into currency and helping to make filters affordable to the poor.

Thirst-Ed

In a word where a child dies every 15 seconds from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene, Thirst-Ed’s goal is to make knowledge of household water treatment and proper hygiene as common as how to cook rice of fry egg.

Thirst-Ed promotes education and knowledge as the principal tools for safe-water intervention, inspiring the drive for improved water quality to come from within the community prior to the introduction of safe-water technologies.

The Thirst-Ed Program develops and distributes materials such as books, pamphlets, posters and videos to be used by community healthcare educators and leaders as teaching tools in addition to social marketing of household water treatment methods. The Thirst-Ed program focuses on the positive aspects of improved health that result from better water quality, providing participant with comprehensible knowledge of the true dangers that waterborne illnesses represent as well as a clear understanding of how easily these illnesses can be prevented. Peer-to –peer educational and motivational learning methods encourage community participation, promoting ownership and making community members stake holders, thus increasing concern for the success of the program.

While it is generally agreed upon that program sustainability is increased with user buy-in, it is also generally agreed upon that most household water treatment methods appear to be beyond the economic reach of the population that they have been designed to serve.

Thirst-Ed provides the currency for community buy-in issuing Certificates of Knowledge upon successful completion of the Thirst-Ed educational program. These certificates serve as legal tender that can be later sued for the purchase of safe-water technologies.

Increasing the sustained use of household water treatment products and methods results in long-term program savings that more than offset the minor costs of implementing the Thirst-Ed educational component as a preliminary step to the introduction of safe-water technologies.

One last benefit of the Thirst-Ed program is that education based. Education provides rewards that go well beyond the subject matter, increasing self-esteem among participants and inspiring further learning. Education cannot be taken by corrupt officials or converted to cash and used for other purposes. Education is easily transferred and carried and doesn’t get left behind when people move.

An Education First approach to safe water interventions

In a world where a child dies every 15 seconds from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene,

Thirst-Aid’s goal is to make knowledge of household water treatment and proper hygiene as common as how to cook rice or fry an egg.

Thirst-Aid promotes education and knowledge as the principal tools for safe-water intervention, inspiring the drive for improved water quality to come from within the community prior to the introduction of safe-water technologies.

Thirst-Aid provides the currency for community buy-in by issuing Certificates of Knowledge upon successful completion of the Thirst-Aid educational program. These certificates serve as legal tender that can be later used for the purchase of safe-water technologies.

Increasing the sustained use of household water treatment products and methods results in long-term program savings that more than offset the minor costs of implementing the Thirst-Aid educational component as a preliminary step to the introduction of safe-water technologies.

One last benefit of the Thirst-Aid program is that it is education based. Education provides rewards that go well beyond the subject matter, increasing self-esteem among participants and inspiring further learning. Education cannot be taken by corrupt officials or converted to cash and used for other purposes. Education is easily transferred and carried and doesn’t get left behind when people move.

Summary – Thirst-Aid Myanmar

Thirst-Aid began developing a Ceramic Water Filter (CWF) industry in Myanmar in June of 2006 with the help of a knowledge transfer grant from UNICEF. CWF’s, currently used in over 20 countries, are extremely effective at reducing waterborne illnesses, are simple in design, easy to use, can be manufactured in country with local resources, and provide excellent income generation opportunities.

Largely as a result of Thirst-Aid’s efforts, Myanmar now has the greatest CWF production capacity in the world with eight CWF producers in the private sector who directly employ over 143 people. In response to Cyclone Nargis alone, this industry has worked with INGOs to produce, sell, and distribute over 90,000 CWFs, providing a population of nearly half a million people with safe water and hence greatly improved health; an effort recognized as unprecedented in the history of disaster relief. Often considered a pariah, Myanmar is now actually being recognized as being a leader in this health intervention. Trends have to start somewhere.

Despite the great income generation success this program has provided, Thirst-Aid’s primary focus remains on the true purpose of this technology – the prevention of waterborne illnesses – the largest killer of children under the age of five.

Thirst-Aid promotes education and knowledge as the principal tools for safe water intervention, inspiring the drive for improved water quality to come from within communities prior to the introduction of the ceramic water filter units. Thirst-Aid bases this approach on the assumption that educated people, regardless of race, color, of creed, do not willingly drink contaminated water- much less give it to their children.

Thirst-Aid’s goal is to bring this life saving program to country scale. With 16 million people who still rely on ponds, lakes, rivers and streams as their only source for drinking water, death from diarrhea dehydration is not uncommon in Myanmar, accounting for an estimated 24,000 childhood fatalities a year.

Thirst-Aid is well supported for the continued development and monitoring of CWF manufacturing, production, and distribution but requires funding for the education and social marketing aspects of this campaign.

Thirst-Aid’s aim is to inspire the drive for safe water to become a strong household and community value, so strong in fact that people will view having a ceramic water filter as a status symbol and will save their money for this with greater importance than they would give saving for a television, radio, rice cooker, or any luxury item. Just as populations have been inspired to purchase their own bed nets to prevent the spread of malaria, Thirst-Aid aims to inspire those who can to also begin taking responsibility for the reduction of waterborne illnesses.

Thirst-Aid’s Ethical Guidelines

• To maintain all Thirst-Aid materials and data as open-source.

• To use in-country technicians, craftspeople, and technology for the design and fabrication of all equipment whenever possible.

• To use applicable in-country educational templates and educators.

• To promote gender equality in all Thirst-Aid projects.

• To accept all races and religions without discrimination in all aspects of program development and implementation.

• To have an exit strategy for all western staff built into every Thirst-Aid safe water intervention.

• To minimize western involvement and maximize the participation of in-country human resources.

Thirst-Aid Mission Statement

• To inspire the drive for safe drinking water to come from within population in need.

• To educate communities to value safe water as the foundation of good health.

• To empower peer-to-peer safe water campaigns with culturally relevant education, social marketing tools and applicable safe water technologies.

• To secure start-up funds and ongoing support so that in-country programs are sustainable and result in long-term improvement of community health.

• To support safe water as a right – not a privilege.

Highlights of Thirst-Aid’s work in Myanmar

• 2006 – Thirst-Aid developed the first Ceramic Water Filter (CWF) factory in Myanmar with the help of UNICEF’s funding, Thirst-Aid developed a second CWF factory in Twantay, Myanmar in 2007.

• In response to the huge demand for CWFs created by Cyclone Nargis, Thirst-Aid has since helped to develop an additional 6 factories throughout the country.

• Establishing these 8 independently owned factories has directly resulted in over 143 ne jobs.

• CWF sales relative to Cyclone Nargis exceeded US$ 1,200,000 with gross expenditures related to CWFs in excess of US$ 2,000,000.

• Now focusing primarily on social marketing to promote behavior change and inspire household water treatment, Thirst-Aid has developed the Thirst-Ed program and has trained over 300 community health educators in CWF specific safe water and hygiene promotion.

• Thirst-Aid continues to serve as Quality Assurance monitors for the entire CWF industry, providing free QA inspections for all NGOs and retailers purchasing CWFs.

• Thirst-Aid also provides free education, care and use brochures and stickers to all CWF manufactures so that these materials will accompany all CWF units.