Max Foundation

28/05/2026

Today is World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
Menstrual health is not only a matter of hygiene, it is a matter of dignity, access, and equity.

When girls and women lack access to safe water, sanitation, privacy, and accurate information, education is disrupted, health risks increase, and participation in daily life becomes more difficult.

Addressing menstrual health therefore requires more than distributing products. It requires strengthening water and sanitation systems, ensuring supportive school environments, and integrating menstrual health into broader health and community services.

When these systems function, menstruation does not limit opportunity.

*Image of Healthy Promotion Agent showing the menstrual pads she sells.

26/05/2026

Five neighbours watched Khadiza Begum connect her home to the new piped water grid in early 2023. Not long after, they decided to get connected to the piped water supply too.

Within 16 months, 62 households in Krishnakathi village had invested BDT 660,000 (~€4,664) in upgraded sanitation facilities — latrines, basins, bathing chambers — using their own savings and small loans.

Before the grid, Khadiza’s family relied on a tubewell 15 minutes away that ran dry in winter and was often contaminated. She carried the primary responsibility for water collection every day.

The one-time connection fee was BDT 5,000 (~€35). Monthly tariff BDT 200 (~€1). Two years later, her youngest has had diarrhoea twice. Before the tap — every other month.
The infrastructure enabled the investment. The community made it happen.

Read the full story here: https://maxfoundation.org/story/households-in-rular-bangladesh/

How a community in Krishnakathi village, Bangladesh, invested 660,000 Bangladeshi Taka in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene facilities after a piped water grid reached 62 households.

19/05/2026

Safe water in rural Bangladesh isn't only an access problem. It's a market design problem.
95% of rural households have no access to piped water. They rely on tube wells, ponds, boreholes — often contaminated with arsenic, iron, or salinity. And they pay for it: up to €14 a month in water-related illness costs alone.

The water is unaffordable? Not exactly. The market to deliver it safely just doesn't exist yet at scale.

That's what Max TapWater is building. More than 100 decentralised piped water mini-grids across southern Bangladesh. 22,000 people with 24/7 safe water piped directly into their homes. A network of local entrepreneurs running each grid as a viable business — because when the service stops, the business stops.

Communities served have already seen a 40% reduction in waterborne diseases. The goal: every rural household in Bangladesh reached through a locally operated, commercially viable water grid.

Read more about what it takes to strengthen safe water market systems: https://maxfoundation.org/white_paper/water-market-systems/

Safe water in rural Bangladesh isn’t only an access problem. It’s also a market design problem. Here’s how Max TapWater is solving it through a commercially viable social enterprise model.

12/05/2026

Tenaw Merkebu left school at grade 10 and became a construction worker. When the Healthy Village programme was looking for someone to produce model toilet slabs, to promote healthy WASH practices, his background made him just the right person.

The slabs he makes are removable. When a pit fills and collapses — a common reason households revert to open defecation — the slab detaches and fits a new pit. Same slab, new pit. The investment carries forward.

“Having a clean toilet is a matter of self-respect,” he said.

Shebel Berenta is one of Ethiopia’s largest teff producers — but no irrigation means no vegetables, a narrow diet, and a water shortage that reaches into child health. One borehole serves 400 to 500 people in his area. He is married with a two-year-old son. His ambition: a profitable slab business, irrigation ponds across the woreda, and a toilet in every neighbourhood.

Read the full story here: https://maxfoundation.org/story/toilet-slab-business/

Ethiopian construction worker produces and sells model toilet slabs, supporting safer sanitation, preventing disease, and creating local livelihoods.

28/04/2026

Health extension workers in Ethiopia regularly advise families on how to prepare nutritious complementary food for infants and young children. Yet in many communities, the ingredients required are not always easily available — or not in forms that are feasible for caregivers.

In one rural kebele, a local shop owner began producing and selling complementary food after recognising this gap. By sourcing ingredients and preparing the product locally, she created a reliable point of access within her community.

This is not simply a story about one entrepreneur. It illustrates a broader systems challenge: nutrition guidance is most effective when local markets make healthy options consistently available.

Bridging the gap between public health advice and everyday access requires coordination between community health systems and local enterprise.

Read the full story: https://maxfoundation.org/story/creating-a-market-for-child-nutrition-through-entrepreneurship/

Muluwork's shop in rural Ethiopia is creating a market that turns awareness into accessible products. This is how sustainable nutrition delivery systems are built.

24/04/2026

570 children with disabilities in Lalmonirhat, Bangladesh. They were always there. What changed was that the health system around them learned to see them.

When dedicated disability programmes end, their services end too. Children fall back through the gap. That's the pattern we set out to break — not by adding a parallel disability track, but by making inclusive practice part of everything we already do.

Community health workers trained to spot early signs of disability during routine visits. Hygiene sessions where stigma gets addressed openly. WASH entrepreneurs building accessible design as standard. 4,847 children entered the registration system in a single year.

189 community structures will keep this work going long after external support ends. That's the difference between a disability add-on and disability-inclusive programming.

Read more about what this looks like in practice: https://maxfoundation.org/white_paper/disability-inclusion/

How embedding disability-inclusive practice into existing child health systems — rather than running parallel programmes — creates services that reach more children and last beyond project funding

22/03/2026

Today is .

Water systems don't fail because of missing technology. They fail because governance, finance, and operations aren't aligned.

Across many countries, water points stop working within a few years of installation — not because communities don't value them, but because long-term responsibility for operation and maintenance is unclear once projects end.

The solution isn't more infrastructure. It's better system design.
In coastal Bangladesh, some water systems continue to function because they're operated locally as a service. Local operators manage treatment and distribution, households pay small predictable user fees, and accountability for maintenance is built in from the start. No dependency on external funding. No gap when the project closes.

This is what Max Foundation and Max TapWater work to build: public–private partnerships that bring together local governments, entrepreneurs, and investors to create water services designed to last — not just to succeed once.

Real impact happens when systems are designed to scale.

🔗 Learn more about Max TapWater: https://maxfoundation.org/program/max-tapwater/

20/03/2026

Today is Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan — a month of reflection, generosity, and community.

Eid is a reminder of the importance of solidarity, care for one another, and shared responsibility — values that resonate deeply in the communities where we work.

At the heart of sustainable health and development are strong families, supportive communities, and systems that allow people to thrive with dignity.

To all who are celebrating, !

16/10/2025

World Food Day comes one day after Global Handwashing Day. There's a reason these two connect.

Children experiencing frequent diarrhoea from unsafe water cannot absorb nutrients properly, regardless of what they eat. In communities where Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and nutrition interventions work in isolation, progress stalls. When they're integrated, stunting rates drop.

Integration isn't optional when it comes to child health; it should be standard practice. Our new free online course covers what integration is, why it matters, and how it delivers better, longer-term health outcomes for children.

Read more about integration and how to take the course here: https://maxfoundation.org/news/course-wash-nutrition/

We are proud to announce the launch of a new, free online course, WASH and Nutrition Nexus: The Basics.

15/10/2025

Today, on Global Handwashing Day, we celebrate a simple action that saves lives.

Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective ways to prevent disease and protect child health. When combined with safe water access and proper nutrition, it becomes even more powerful in breaking cycles of illness and undernutrition.

But handwashing requires access to safe water. That's why we work with communities in Bangladesh and Ethiopia to build water systems they can sustain themselves—from piped water grids to locally managed sanitation services.

When communities have safe water, locally available hygiene products, and knowledge about when and how to wash hands, children stay healthier and families thrive.

Learn more about our approach to water, sanitation and hygiene: https://maxfoundation.org/our-focus/wash/