Our “Water is the Life-Line of Life” projects are built on three years of cultivating relationships with teachers, students, grass-roots public-private partnerships and national and local government leaders (who have served as our early promoters and allies), creating a strong infrastructure for community support and project implementation of the Hydraid Biosand Filters (BSF).
The implementation of GSP’s projects are unique, because we’ve developed a strategic distribution plan designed to train and empower teachers to install their Hydraid® BioSand water filters. In addition, the District Education Officers (DEO’s) have put the ownership of the project in the hands of the Headmasters/teachers (the children also play a significant role in the construction of “their” filters), which gives us a build in workforce and the teachers live beside the beneficiaries, which creates support and acceptance of the BSF and raises awareness of its affordability; addressing the fundamental issues of poverty and “handouts” — opening the door towards accountability as we move forward into installing filters into health clinics, hospitals, communities/ households — empowering women to close the gap of recommendation. This type of coordinated effort will set the tone for the rest of the country and will help drive the success and sustainability of the project well after GSP has gone to setup clean water projects in other communities and countries.
The community support that GSP has received through our outreach efforts has raised awareness and
created more demand for the filters, which will help drive the success and sustainability of the project well after GSP has gone to further expand our clean water projects into other communities and countries.
- GSP installed over 200 filters in 70 primary and secondary schools and 100 households in the Meru District, Arusha and the Karatu District, Tanzania impacting over 45,000 students (and their teachers) and households.
- Partner with local community bank: set up saving accounts for women, so they can save money to purchase a filter for their families (closing the gap of recontamination – filters in school and at home). The bank also offers other banking tools (e.g. mobile banking, using the ATM machine,
talking to a teller, etc.) removing barriers for women to feel comfortable with using a bank to
also save for other household goals. - GSP will be installing additional filters in government and private schools in the Meru and Karatu District’s.
- GSP will be installing 200 filters in households in the Karatu District.
- GSP will be installing filters in 1 hospital, 29 dispensaries and health clinics in the Meru District.
- GSP is fundraising to purchase and ship 100,000 BPA free and environmentally friendly water bottles
Additional Projects – GSP:
- Donated sand and gravel to help build a laboratory in one of our secondary schools
- Installed new floors at one of our primary schools
- will be painting dorm rooms and improving bathrooms