Helping women find dignity and earn a living
A Rotaract project in Uttar Pradesh, India, is liberating women who emptied dry toilets with their hands by teaching them skills that enable them to earn a living for their families.
Although manual scavenging was banned in India in 1993, it persists in many parts of the country. The women who engage in it, many of them the sole wage earners for their families, make a meager income for their efforts.
Through Project Azmat, members of the Rotaract Club of SRCC Panchshila Park partnered with the international nonprofit Enactus to organize women who had been doing this work into a cooperative, teaching them basic literacy skills and training them to make and market detergent. The project is also replacing dry latrines with two-pit toilets, which require no maintenance and use only a small amount of water to convert human waste into manure, improving sanitation and preventing the spread of disease. More than 120 new toilets have been installed, enabling over two dozen women to earn a living through the sale of detergent. The project was selected as this year’s international winner of the Rotaract Outstanding Project Award.
Although manual scavenging was banned in India in 1993, it persists in many parts of the country. The women who engage in it, many of them the sole wage earners for their families, make a meager income for their efforts.
Through Project Azmat, members of the Rotaract Club of SRCC Panchshila Park partnered with the international nonprofit Enactus to organize women who had been doing this work into a cooperative, teaching them basic literacy skills and training them to make and market detergent. The project is also replacing dry latrines with two-pit toilets, which require no maintenance and use only a small amount of water to convert human waste into manure, improving sanitation and preventing the spread of disease. More than 120 new toilets have been installed, enabling over two dozen women to earn a living through the sale of detergent. The project was selected as this year’s international winner of the Rotaract Outstanding Project Award.
(Photo above) A woman measures out ingredients to make detergent. Project Azmat is freeing women from hand-cleaning dry toilets for a living by teaching them marketable skills.
Highlighting the scope of youth service in Rotary Every other year since 2003, members of the Interact Club of Hugh Boyd Secondary School in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, have teamed up with their sponsor Rotary club, teachers, and firefighters to provide assistance to the Refilwe orphanage, located PHOTO COURTESY OF INTERACT CLUB OF HUGH BOYD SECONDARY SCHOOL near Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2013, the month-long effort included rebuilding the orphanage and a preschool.
The Interact club produced a video that featured the orphanage renovation, along with other projects such as ice skating to raise funds for polio eradication, collecting canned goods for a local food bank, and participating in a model UN day in San Diego, California, USA. The video — “Our Best Day in Interact” — won the annual Interact video contest for 2014-15, beating out 88 entries from 33 countries. (Below left) The Interact Club of Hugh Boyd Secondary School in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, has built a strong tradition of bringing positive change to communities locally and globally.
The Interact club produced a video that featured the orphanage renovation, along with other projects such as ice skating to raise funds for polio eradication, collecting canned goods for a local food bank, and participating in a model UN day in San Diego, California, USA. The video — “Our Best Day in Interact” — won the annual Interact video contest for 2014-15, beating out 88 entries from 33 countries. (Below left) The Interact Club of Hugh Boyd Secondary School in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, has built a strong tradition of bringing positive change to communities locally and globally.
The Rotary Foundation
Annual Report 2014-2015