Safe Drinking Water for 80,000 children in Bolivia

Project update June 2010

Dear supporters,

With great pleasure we inform you about the recent developments in the project „Safe Drinking Water for 80,000 children in Bolivia“. As we have reported previously, activities in the field are advancing well and the project already reached an impressive number of people. Just to mention a few numbers:

- Throughout the project, we trained 86,087 children on Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) and on adequate hand washing. 6,921 of these children were designated as leaders; they are responsible for making sure the methods are applied correctly and consistently at class rooms.

- Some 22,300 parents and 583 school councils were trained on SODIS and improved hygiene measures.

- 793 teachers were trained on how to teach SODIS and hand washing, and how to include these topics in the curriculums. The teachers also learned how to integrate healthy habits into the daily procedures at school – this is an important step to make these habits last for a long time.

- At 50 schools, children painted large pictures explaining the simple SODIS method on outdoor walls. They serve as a promotion platform but also remind teachers and children to drink only treated water.

These are just a few of the outputs achieved by the project. They illustrate that great progress has been made at large scale. Apart from the numbers, there were also qualitative results. For example, an inter-institutional committee was created, including the local Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, and the local water supply agencies, among others. In this committee, activities are coordinated in order to make sure the project will have an impact beyond the directly involved schools, and that the benefits will continue even after the project will be formally closed in September 2010.

Even though it still is early to judge the impact created by the project, we can already confirm that the project was carried out as planned and that massive output at scale was generated. This project is one of the first of its kind at this large scale and it will be important to document the impressive series of benefits created with limited funds available. We will continue to inform about this project and will also indentify other communication channels in order to spread the word further. We think that this is an important step to demonstrate that significant change can be achieved through behaviour change, through simple measures and through working at large scale. With the support of our supporters (you!), it was possible to make a difference in the lives of thousands of people. You can help this cause further: pass on this report, place a widget of the project on your Facebook site, or talk to a friend about the project. We are looking forward to hear back from you.

Furthermore, we would like to inform you about interesting recent developments within the SODIS Foundation. We have been invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to set up an open innovation challenge. This challenge, implemented by the leading open innovation platform InnoCentive (http://www.innocentive.com/landing/global-giveback.php), finished in April 2010 and yielded more than 70 high-quality ideas on how to develop a SODIS-indicator. The SODIS Foundation - with the support of experts - is currently in the process of evaluating these proposals and will identify a winner by the end of June. This idea then will be further developed and tested with the aim of producing low-cost SODIS-indicators. We expect such indicators to simplify the application and promotion of the SODIS method, which can benefit millions of people. We will inform you on our website about further developments on this issue (www.fundacionsodis.org).

Finally, we would like to point out to a special opportunity: all online (credit card or paypal) donations to the project made on Wednesday, June 16, will be complemented by ANOTHER 50% by the Global Giving Foundation. This is a great opportunity to make your donation go even further, saving more lives for less money. As an example: if you donate 50 dollars to the project, the effective donation actually will be 75 dollars, thanks to the matching funds generously provided by Global Giving. Simply visit our project on June 16 and follow the steps indicated – amounts up to 1,000 dollars will be matched: www.globalgiving.org/1905.

We would like to thank you for your continuing support – we are overwhelmed by the large number of people who show us their support day by day. Every donation makes a difference to us, to the project and to the children in Bolivia who benefit from safe drinking water. With additional support, we can go even further.

For the project team,

Matthias Saladin

Links:

• The website of the SODIS Foundation
• Entry site for donation on June 16 (matched by another 50%)
• Information about the innovation challenge for a SODIS indicator

Pictures:

• Maria (Oruro) is showing her SODIS bottle (JPG)
• Mobile hand washing unit in action (JPG)

Project update and matching day: April 29, 2010

Dear supporters of the project “Safe Drinking Water for 80,000 children in Bolivia”:

From Haiti to Bolivia and around the world, water is in the headlines again, and we would like to point out to a few events and news related to our project:

The April issue of National Geographic (special edition on water) features an article on a project to promote Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) in the slums of Nairobi (Kenya). You can read the article (titled “High Marks for Clean Water”) online on the blog of National Geographic:

http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2010/04/high-marks-for-clean-water.html

Since the beginning of the year, rains continue to fall in the Andes, with floods affecting thousands of families in the region. Due to increased temperatures, the glaciers of the region are releasing more water and causing many rivers reach record levels. Among others, the BBC is reporting on this phenomenon and documents the story of Alivio Aruquipa who went to the Climate Summit in Copenhagen in search of support to claim compensations for the damages caused by the melting glaciers. Read the story here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8629379.stm. With large cities like La Paz and Lima relying heavily on glacier melt for their water supply, this will be an issue coming back to the headlines for the years to come.

In Cochabamba (Bolivia), where the SODIS Foundation is headquartered, water has an especially tragic story to tell. Ten years ago, a civil movement was formed to protest against the tariff hikes of the recently privatized municipal water supply agency. The violent clashes between protesters and the police, also known as “water war”, led to a state of emergency, the death of at least five protesters and finally the cancellation of the contract with the private company. One recent article on this story and the following developments can be found here:

http://www.alternet.org/water/146521/water_wars_continue:_how_one_city

Water often is a matter of live and death. Contaminated water continues to kill a child every 20 seconds worldwide. The good news is that the rate is dropping – but it is dropping slow, putting at risk millions of people. Today more than 800 million people drink water from unimproved sources – that is, from rivers, dug wells or irrigation channels. At the SODIS Foundation, we are working hard to change this and bring safe drinking water to those who need it most. With your support, we can go reach out to additional people. Thank you for your continuing support.

Best wishes from the SODIS Foundation,

For the project team: Matthias Saladin

Links:

• National Geographic article on SODIS

Pictures:

• SODIS user Pamela Flores (JPG)
• School children drink safe SODIS water (JPG)
• Wall painting promoting SODIS at a school (JPG)
• Promotion of hand washing (JPG)

Dear supporters,

This is a short update from the project “Safe Drinking Water for 80,000 children in Bolivia”, including an announcement of a special donation opportunity on March 16, 2010.

Whereas the world was observing anxiously the emergencies in Haiti and in Chile, it has gone unnoticed that massive rainfalls in January triggered the Bolivian Government to declare a national state of emergency. In La Paz alone, 22,000 families lost all their belongings due to the heavy rainfalls and subsequent floods.

Nevertheless, many of you did not forget about the project. In spite of global attention being caught by the large-scale disasters in Haiti and Chile, generous donations keep coming in. We would like to thank all of our supporters for their continuing support - your help is a great motivation for us, and even with a small amount we can change the lives of many people for the better.

Meanwhile, Bolivian children want back to school in February 2010. Staff of the SODIS Foundation, together with our partner institution Save the Children, participated in planning workshops with many schools in Oruro, El Alto and Cochabamba. The installation of more SODIS support structures (see pictures) was planned and will be completed in the next few weeks as the project is entering its final year.

During a recent visit to the project, we witnessed that the activities are not only having an impact at schools, but also at homes. For example, Pamela Flores, a mother of a six year old girl who goes to one of the project schools, told us that her daughter requires her to prepare SODIS water every day. Pamela heard from the SODIS method before, but only after seeing it being implemented by the school she started practicing it at home – with support and instructions of her daughter. “We no longer drink untreated water. SODIS is so simple and my daughter also drinks SODIS water at the school” Pamela commented proudly. This is exactly what the project is about: creating awareness, enabling people to change behavior and learn healthy habits. These will last for years to come, providing protection to the families.

Protection and behavior change is also important when disasters strike – not only in Haiti or Chile. The SODIS Foundation is therefore preparing plans to include simple instructions on how to obtain safe drinking water for emergency preparedness plans. In this way, people can be trained before a disaster strikes, and act accordingly in such situations. By now, one thing is clear for the people in Bolivia: after the dry season, the rains will come back every year, and with the rains the floods...

A short notice at last: March 16 (Tuesday) is “Matching Day” at the Global Giving website (only www.globalgiving.org/1905, not www.globalgiving.co.uk). All donations received on that day will be completed by an additional 30% by the Global Giving Foundation. If you donate on that specific day, your contributions will go even further, providing safe drinking water for even more children.

Thank you and best regards,

For the project team: Matthias Saladin

Links:

• Reports from the floods in January 2010 in Bolivia

Dear supporters,

2009 is coming to its end and it’s time to wish everyone a joyful holiday season and all the best for 2010. At the same time, we also want to with you some thoughts about an actual issue:

As many of you have witnessed over the past few days, the climate conference in Copenhagen did not bring about the step ahead which many people were hoping for. This means that more time will be lost for mankind to find better ways of living in dignity without damaging the fundaments of future wellbeing. Nevertheless, at the SODIS Foundation we think that it’s not too late to contribute with our own first steps. Surprisingly, climate change is closely connected to the issues of drinking water (and thus survival) of people in Bolivia (and elsewhere).

As a highly recommendable article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/science/earth/14bolivia.html) points out, glaciers are a low-maintenance form to store fresh water. Conveniently, they retain the water in the rainy season and slowly release it during the dry period. For countries like Bolivia, this is a blessing, thus facilitating agriculture, power generation and development in the valleys and lowlands. However, the glaciers are disappearing quickly: what was known as the “world’s highest ski resort” on Mount Chacaltaya just a few years ago today is a rocky landscape, unable to retain the snow falling on it. Worse, the snow now quickly turns into water, leading to devastating flash floods downstream, a scenario Bolivia is witnessing with increasing frequency. Cities like El Alto are already facing critical water shortages, threatening livelihoods of millions of people.

That is why it is important to do something about climate change, and something about the millions of people who do not have access to safe drinking water. Our project “Safe drinking water for 80,000 children in Bolivia” is just a humble attempt to take a first step. We would like to thank all our supporters for taking this step with us in 2009, and we will keep you informed about the continuing advances and developments. Without your support, this project would not be where it is today.

Thank you again. We wish you happy holidays and all the best for 2010!

Best regards from the SODIS Foundation,

Matthias Saladin

Links:

• New York Times article on climate change and drinking water

Dear supporters of the SODIS Foundation,

Thank for your continued support and interest in our work.

We are glad to inform you that the project in Bolivia is continuing to progress. Activities in the field finished in November as the schools entered summer holidays, and they will start again in February. It has been a busy year for the SODIS Foundation and its project partner Save the Children Bolivia. In a few months, more than 80,000 children have been trained on simple methods about how to obtain safe drinking water and improve hygiene. Through the parents committees at the schools, more than 20,000 parents were reached as well, and many of them are adopting the healthy habits taught at schools. These results make this initiative one of the biggest of its kind in the world, and the SODIS Foundation is glad to announce that the activities will continue in 2010.

One of the highlights was the participation of many project schools at the international hand washing day on October 15. At public events, children presented street theatres and poetry contests. The innovative mobile hand washing units, which had been developed during this project, also received considerable attention from the public and the media. As you can see from the pictures, it also is a moment of great pride for the children and gives them the opportunity to display their creativity.

We just received news that the in November, the project received donations over the amount of $ 1,131 through the Global Giving website. Thanks to everyone who contributed. We also wanted to let you know that the project is participating in GlobalGiving.co.uk's Christmas Giving Challenge, a fundraising opportunity for non-profit organizations working with communities around the world. Every donation helps, and no donation is too small. You can show your support for the SODIS Foundation for as little as £5 and make a big impact to our project. Just click on this link (www.globalgiving.co.uk/1905) and follow the instructions.

Please spread the spirit of giving and share this email with your friends and family and ask them to help us too. Donations can also be made in dedication to someone (e-gift cards), which makes an excellent present. Giving a perfume to your loved ones is nice, but how much nicer is it to facilitate someone access to safe drinking water?

The whole team from the SODIS Foundation wishes you a happy giving season.

Thank you for your support,

Matthias Saladin

Pictures:

• Parade on International Hand Washing Day (JPG)
• International Hand Washing Day: October 15 (JPG)
• Children explaining the SODIS method (JPG)

Dear supporters,

This is a short message with some updates from the field and an announcement of an upcoming opportunity to increase the impact of your donations.

During a recent field trip, two volunteers of the SODIS Foundation, Valerie Grosscup and Jonathan Spear, visited several project schools. They went to schools in El Alto and Oruro, talked to teachers, school directors and students and came back with a lot of impressions and ideas. One thing they learned is that in the schools in El Alto, where project activities had started much earlier than in Oruro, there is much more practice of SODIS and hand washing at the classrooms. This confirms our experience that change does not come over night, neither by a single workshop or training. Whereas these learning moments are important, the key of behavior change consists of repetition and motivation, which takes a lot of time and effort (those of you who have experience in teaching children to brush their teeth or wash their hands may know this…).

The visit of Valerie and Jonathan, along with other monitoring activities of the SODIS Foundation, confirmed that the project is progressing well. Over the past months, the training activities in the field have reached all 231 schools involved in the project. More than 800 students were trained as peer trainers, as well as more than 800 teachers and school directors. In more than 100 schools, some simple structures were installed for exposing the bottles to sunlight. Furthermore, “healthy corners” were installed in over 100 schools, where the treated water is kept and where students can wash their hands.

You may be aware that on a global scale, hand washing is being recognized as an effective prevention not only for waterborne diseases, but also for influenza (including the “swine flu”). This situation highlights the importance of this project, providing over 200 schools with simple yet effective shields against public health threats. The next time you wash your hands, you may want to think about the luxury of safe dinking water coming out of the tap – it saves thousands of lives, day after day.

We also would like to announce an important opportunity: During November, all donations we receive through the website www.globalgiving.com will be matched by at least 30% by the Global Giving Foundation. This means that for example a donation of 10$ will actually generate 13$ of benefits, and the more funds we raise, the more matching money we receive (up to 50% if we raise at least 7,500$ during this challenge). We therefore would like to encourage you considering a donation to the project – every donation makes a difference!

Please let us know if this project update was useful for you by leaving a comment on the website. We continuously strive to improve our services and are grateful for any feedback.

Thanking you for your support,

Matthias Saladin

By the way, you can also find us – and many pictures of from the project – on Facebook. Simply type “Safe Drinking WAter for Children in Latin America” in the search bar of Facebook.

Links:

• The latest SODIS clip on YouTube

Pictures:

• Group presentation of SODIS during a health fair (JPG)
• Teachers during a training workshop (JPG)
• SODIS support at a local school (JPG)

Dear supporters of the Safe Drinking Water Project in Bolivia,

We are overwhelmed by the surge in support and donations we received over the past two months. As a highlight, we achieved the goal of raising 2,000 £ through donations of the Global Giving UK website, as a result of our participation in the “Alive and Learning Challenge”. Thanks to this great achievement, our project was included in the winner’s page (which can be found here: http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/top5-a-and-l/), as one of only five projects (out of over 60 participants) which achieved this goal.

We therefore want to thank everybody who helped us reach this goal: the project team, the fundraising team, and especially you, the donors. Thanksk to you, every day more schools are enrolled in the project, and every day more children obtain access to the healthiest of all drinks: safe water.

In this sense, a happy “cheers” to you from the SODIS Foundation. We will soon update you on project progress on the ground.

Best regards,

Matthias Saladin

NB: As another highlight, we just received donation number 100 and quickly are approaching the 10,000-dollar-limit of total project donations. Thank you!

Links:

• Winner's list of the Alive and Learning Challenge

Pictures:

• SODIS promotion at school (JPG)
• Handwashing at school (JPG)

Dear Supporters of the Safe Drinking Water Project in Bolivia,

We wanted to quickly update you on important developments within the project „Safe Drinking Water for 80,000 Children in Bolivia“, and also let you know about a special fundraising challenge.

During a recent visit to the project we confirmed that the activities are advancing well. As we have previously informed, it was possible to significantly improve the number of beneficiaries of the project, thanks to negotiations with our partner institution Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org). The project will now reach more than 80,000 children in about 230 schools, rather than the initially planned 10,000 children. This massive increase is possible thanks to the great interest of teachers and school directors, who are aware of the importance of safe drinking water and hygiene at their schools.

Up to now, more than 860 teachers have been trained on how to obtain safe drinking water by using the simple SODIS method. Similarly, 767 pupils received training on SODIS and hygiene; they now will be responsible for training their peers and supervise the proper application of the SODIS method at school.

Over the past few months, the focus of the promotion efforts was on hand washing, which complements the safe drinking water component. The simple habit of hand washing with soap can not only prevent many cases of diarrhoea but also any type of flu. By the end of May, the H1N1 virus had arrived in Bolivia, and by the beginning of July, more than 400 cases have been reported, so the hand washing campaign was launched just in time to prepare schools and families for this new threat. After some initial difficulties with handling common hand washing basins, the special “mobile hand washing units” were designed and promoted – a big success with teachers and pupils alike. These units use less water and are safer to use than common water basins. They can be made from PET bottles – for example the ones that are too scratched to be used for SODIS.

On July 13, staff of the SODIS Foundation invited local media to visit some of the project schools in Cochabamba. In the neighbourhood called “Uspha Uspha”, they discovered a small restaurant, which offered all its home-made fruit juices based on SODIS water. Veronica Alanes, the owner of the restaurant, mentioned that her innovative drinks were well received by children, but also by adults. SODIS water now comes with taste of lemon, passion fruit or “tumbo”, the popular fruit of a local cactus. Of course, the restaurant also is equipped with a mobile hand washing unit for the clients. In this way, they will enjoy safe drinks and good hygiene – at no additional cost.

Furthermore, we also would like to inform you that our project has been invited by the Global Giving Foundation in the United Kingdom (www.globalgiving.co.uk) to participate in the “Alive and Learning” fundraising challenge. A number of projects from around the world dealing with children and education have been selected to participate in this challenge. Between July 15 and August 14, they will be promoted through the website of the Global Giving UK Foundation, and the most successful projects will be eligible for prizes and additional promotions.

We therefore kindly invite you to support our project once more – either by a donation through www.globalgiving.co.uk/1905 , or by forwarding this message to friends and colleagues who may be interested. Remember that any amount is welcome, no matter how small; it only costs £ 12 to train a teacher to produce and promote safe drinking water.

We thank all our donors for their continuing support, which serves as a great motivation to the whole team.

Kind regards,

Matthias Saladin

PS: June was our most successful fundraising month this year – so let’s make July even better!

Dear Supporters,

It has been a while since you last heard from the project team in Bolivia. In December 2008, we were invited to join a special fund-raising campaign, which received much attention and feedback. In spite of the fact that we did not reach our fundraising target (5,000 USD in one month), there have been many contributions, and we were the most successful project (out of 42) from Latin America. Even after the campaign, funds kept coming in steadily, in spite of an ever worsening economic outlook worldwide. We would like to thank all our supporters for their help in hard times – it is very motivating for us to see so many people contributing to the project.

In Bolivia, the project has made considerable progress over the past few months. In November 2008, staff of the SODIS Foundation trained dozens of facilitators of “Save the Children” on the specific methodology. They in turned started with the training workshops for teachers. So far, more than 700 teachers have been trained in 2008. After holiday season (December and January traditionally are “summer vacation” in Bolivia), the project team went back to work as soon as classes started in February 2009. Local authorities and the parents of the school kids were informed about the project, in order to facilitate the spreading of healthy habits from school to homes.

At the classrooms and schools, the transition is already visible. Not only are there many bottles placed on the roofs or ready for consumption in the classrooms, but also a large number of the innovative “mobile hand washing units” can be seen (see pictures). These units are made of used PET bottles and enable kids to wash their hand at any time, using only very little water.

The project is now in full swing. Within the next few months, SODIS and hand washing will be promoted at all 231 schools of the project as well as in their surroundings. In some schools, poetry and drawing competitions will be held and health fairs will be organized. The SODIS Foundation will keep visiting the project in the field and keep you informed about the latest developments.

Once more, we would like thank all our project supporters. In the words of a child from the project region: “Thanks to SODIS we now have good drinking water, and my headache has gone away…”

P.S. Please let us know what you think of this update by providing feedback in the comments section.

Links:

• Project campaign website
• Download the SODIS guide in English
• Check out the animated video of the

Pictures:

• Mobilel hand washing unit (JPG)
• Training workshop for teachers (JPG)
• Safe drinking water at classrooms (JPG)

Dear friends of the SODIS Foundation,

The new phase of the SODIS promotion project is taking shape. Over the past few months since the last update, the new project phase has been defined in detail, and we already started with the training workshops. This project update provides you with some additional information on how the project is advancing.

Project up-date November 2008

After completing the pilot phase of the project, it was decided to make some changes to the project, the most important ones being its scale (about 88,000 children will now benefit instead of 10,000) and its partner (one large NGO rather than several small ones). In July and August 2008, the SODIS Foundation and its partner “Safe the Children Bolivia” then set out to define the details of this joint project. Among the main features are the following:

-   The project will benefit 231 schools in three Departments of Bolivia: La Paz, Oruro and Cochabamba.

-   A newly developed methodology will be applied, focusing on the active participation of the schools as well as the parents.

-   The project will be implemented in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education and the municipalities, whose staff will be actively involved in project activities.

-   The project will be launched in all 231 schools at the beginning of the educational year 2009 (starting in February 2009) and will last 2 years.

Save the Children Bolivia and the SODIS Foundation want to focus this project on two key healthy behaviors: Consumption of safe water (through the method of Solar Water Disinfection) and hand washing. For this purpose, the teachers first will demonstrate the methods, and then, a “healthy corner” will be installed in each class room. Additionally, there will be three pupils in every class responsible for SODIS and hand washing. The parents will be informed and involved as well, so that the healthy habits not only will remain at the schools, but also be put into practice at home.

In October 2008, the new project phase was planned in detail. In early November, the technicians of Save the Children were trained on the specific methodology and the parent’s committees of the schools involved were informed about the project. Over the next couple of months, all the teachers of the 231 schools will be trained on how to teach these simple methods at class and on how to motivate children to actually practice the healthy habits.

The SODIS Foundation will keep informing about this project. Over the next few weeks, we will participate with this project in the "Everybody can Win Challenge" of GlobalGiving. If successful, this will generate additional funds so that even more kids in Bolivia can benefit from this simple intervention. So if you can, please support the project. In the name of the beneficiaries, I would like to thank you in advance for any kind of support.

And the best about all this: With this project, it costs less than 3 dollars to allow a child to drink safe water for a year – that’s less than your coffee this morning. Safe drinking water reduces risks of waterborne diseases and improves school attendance – the basics for a brighter future.

Dear friends of the SODIS Foundation,

We are happy to announce that the project “Safe drinking water for 10,000 school kids in Bolivia” experienced some exciting changes and a significant extension – it will now benefit more than 100,000 school kids in several regions of Bolivia, thanks to an alliance with a new partner organization. Read about progress made so far and about the new dimension of the project in our project update (see below).

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Project Update July 2008

Project activities started in November 2007. The goal of the first project phase was to test and evaluate the education materials, which the SODIS Foundation previously had produced and promoted. In order to test these materials, partner organizations working in schools were identified. The partner organizations involved in this project phase were two local NGOs (PDA Soracachi, PDA Wiñaypaj, local offices of the international NGO World Vision) and three Municipalities in the Bolivian highlands (Uncía, Pocoata and Colquechaca). All these institutions successfully have been implementing projects for the promotion of SODIS in previous years with the support of the SODIS Foundation.

They key piece of the education materials is a guide for teachers which facilitates teaching and application of the SODIS method in schools (you can download the manual at http://www.aguasegura.org/es/biblioteca/metodologicos/Escuelas%20para%20la%20Salud.pdf). With this methodology, schools can be changed from high-risk environments into a “escuela para la vida” (“school for life”) - a school where healthy habits are taught as well as practiced.

During this first project phase, the methodology was implemented in 20 schools. In February 2008, in each school, at least 5 teachers were trained on implementation methodology. In the following weeks, technicians of the SODIS Foundation visited the schools in order to support the teachers. Between April and May, the activities and results were evaluated, with the following main insights:

-   The methodology and materials were well accepted by teachers.

-   In some projects, changes within the staff of teaching personnel led to discontinuities, which affected the activities negatively.

-   The material was not as well received by teachers of secondary classes as by the primary school teachers. Therefore, the target audience of the education material (teachers of primary school classes) needs to be better defined.

-   Some teachers showed lack of motivation for implementing the methodology as it implies an additional work load and is not directly linked to their regular activities.

Based on the experiences of this first project phase, the SODIS Foundation decided to change the strategy of the initiative. Instead of implementing several small projects, it was decided to look for a partner institution for carrying out a large-scale initiative, which will last at least a full school-year cycle. Working with all the schools of a region also allows to involve the Ministry of Education more formally and to include the project in regular training and supervision processes of the Ministry. This guarantees a continuous improvement of the methodology as well as the involvement of large numbers of teachers, and working in many schools will create an impact at regional level, creating a positive attitude towards the SODIS method.

In June 2008, the SODIS Foundation managed to identify an ideal partner for the large-scale initiative at the schools: Save the Children Bolivia. The international NGO has many years of experience of working in Bolivia and working with schools (see also http://www.savethechildren.org/countries/latin-america-caribbean/bolivia.html). The new project phase will benefit at least 100,000 school kids. Currently, the SODIS Foundation and Save the Children are raising additional funds for this new project phase, while details of the project implementation are being defined. In our next project report, we will write more about these exciting new developments and about further progress. In the meantime, we keep receiving donations, which will benefit this new project phase. We would like to send all our donors a big THANK YOU – thanks to our support, we can make a difference in the lives of thousands of children. An remember: With as little as 20 US$, we can train a teacher; and with 100 US$, we can bring safe drinking water to a whole class of kids.

Links:

• School Manual
• Save the Children Bolivia