Her2O

03/22/2023

Her2O is in the house at United Nations attending the UN Water conference! Great conversations about the future of water, water management and and DEI as it pertains to water.



Margaret Maina Anna Santino, P.E. Kalpna Solanki, MBA

11/29/2022

It was great to work with EWB, CE Corp and Ha on this project! We are looking forward to the next project in College Springs, IA!

11/29/2022

Hi friends! On this National Day of Giving we could really use your support of Her2O®'s 2023 Kenya Menstrual Hygiene Management fundraiser!

One of our goals is to raise $4,000 to provide sanitary pads to 350 girls in Nairobi, Kenya! Why is this important to Her2O? Because we cannot bring more women into the water and sanitation industry, globally, if girls are not getting proper education. This is just one piece of our work in Kenya. We will also be sponsoring girls to pursue water and sanitation careers via scholarship support.

We are selling Her2O-created digital cookbooks to support this project. The digital cookbooks have 21 recipes including main dishes, side dishes, desserts and drinks all submitted by Her2O members and supporters around the world. PLEASE BUY A COOKBOOK!

Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/...
MINIMUM DONATION IS $20.00. INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WHEN YOU DONATE SO WE CAN EMAIL YOU THE COOKBOOK!

In 2022 Her2O visited Kenswed Secondary, Kiawanda Primary, and Rwacumari Primary schools near Nairobi, Kenya to provide menstrual hygiene management education, supplies and upgrade girls restrooms. Learn more here: https://www.her2o.org/copy-of-i-am-wather

We provided one package of sanitary pads (8-10 pads/package) to each of the 346 menstruating girls attending these schools. Obviously one package is not enough, for even one menstrual cycle. But it was a start.

In 2023 we would like to provide 16-20 sanitary pads to each girl each month. This will cost approximately $4,000, very cheap by US standards. Providing these pads will allow girls to stay in school during menstruation, rather than staying home because they do not have the proper supplies.

Questions: email [email protected]

11/22/2022

It is here! Just in time for the holidays and entertaining. We could really use your support of Her2O®'s 2023 Kenya Menstrual Hygiene Management fundraiser!

One of our goals is to raise $4,000 to provide sanitary pads to 350 girls in Nairobi, Kenya! Why is this important to Her2O? Because we cannot bring more women into the water and sanitation industry, globally, if girls are not getting proper education. This is just one piece of our work in Kenya. We will also be sponsoring girls to pursue water and sanitation careers via scholarship support.
We are selling Her2O-created digital cookbooks to support this project. The digital cookbooks have 21 recipes including main dishes, side dishes, desserts and drinks all submitted by Her2O members and supporters around the world. PLEASE BUY A COOKBOOK!

Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/...
MINIMUM DONATION IS $20.00. INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WHEN YOU DONATE SO WE CAN EMAIL YOU THE COOKBOOK!

In 2022 Her2O visited Kenswed Secondary, Kiawanda Primary, and Rwacumari Primary schools near Nairobi, Kenya to provide menstrual hygiene management education, supplies and upgrade girls restrooms. Learn more here: https://www.her2o.org/copy-of-i-am-wather

We provided one package of sanitary pads (8-10 pads/package) to each of the 346 menstruating girls attending these schools. Obviously one package is not enough, for even one menstrual cycle. But it was a start.

In 2023 we would like to provide 16-20 sanitary pads to each girl each month. This will cost approximately $4,000, very cheap by US standards. Providing these pads will allow girls to stay in school during menstruation, rather than staying home because they do not have the proper supplies.

Questions: email [email protected]

10/30/2022

The priority school that Her2O's WASH project impacted is Kenswed Secondary School.

Kenswed's visionary is world-known marathoner Isaac Macharia! He started the school several years ago and has grown the programming and facilities immensely since then.

Many of the girls attending this school have runaway (usually with their mother) to escape female ge***al mutilation (FGM). Girls are considered 'ready' for FGM as soon as they start to develop breasts. Once FGM is performed, they are considered ready for marriage and are most often married off to much older men. This school offers a safe haven for girls to escape FGM and successfully complete their education. Students at this school are on full scholarship, so they pay nothing to attend.

Kenswed offers both day school and boarding school, as well as a vocational school for students who will not go on to traditional college.

Her2O's WASH project at this school, in partnership with Women In Water And Sanitation and supported by Environmental Operators Certification Program includes upgrading the girls block of restrooms, installing a biodigester and incinerator, and donating disposable sanitary pads, as well providing menstrual hygiene management education to the girls.

Attached are pics of the project and progress that was made on the bathrooms while we were there.

HUGE thank you to everyone that donated to this project and Kalpna Solanki for volunteering to travel with Her2O to implement the project!

10/26/2022

On day two of Her2O's Kenya WASH project in partnership with Women In Water And Sanitation Kenya and supported by Environmental Operators Certification Program we attended a Limuru Water & Sewerage Co Ltd employee workshop to learn about the company's water metering systems and challenges. They are using velocity, volumetric, ultrasonic and insertion flow meters. One of the challenges they face is tampering with the g clamps, and putting a magnet, broomstick or hot needle on meters to stop the meter from rotating. They also must use composite piping and meters because metal meters are often stolen for scrap metal.

Limuru Water and Sewerage Company was incorporated in 2006, following the 2002 Water Act in Kenya. They serve 474,000 sq meters and 247,653 people. Their source water is a combination of bore holes and surface water.

WASPA (Water Service Providers Association) is comprised of 50 utilities working together to provide water. Within all of these utilities combined, there are only 4 women. Kenya has 110 water utilities and only 5 are lead by women, one of which is Limuru Water and Sewerage Company's Margaret Maina, and 17 of 30 technical positions at Limuru Water and Sewerage Company are held by women!

At the workshop, we discussed gender challenges in the sector and employees competed in a somewhat 'women versus men' competition. The women won!

10/25/2022

WOW! A few weeks ago Her2O embarked on our first international WASH project in Kenya in partnership with Women In Water And Sanitation Kenya, and supported by Environmental Operators Certification Program.

If you remember, Her2O hosted two fundraisers for this project, one back in 2021 and a second in early 2022. A HUGE thank you to everyone that donated and contributed time to this project, it was a great success!

Went spent a week with Women In Water And Sanitation, visiting water and wastewater facilities, attending conferences and workshops visiting the Kenya Water Institute, and implementing the WASH project. The idea was to learn about how water and wastewater are done in Kenya and in what ways we can grow our partnership and impact there.

On day one we attended the Faecal Sludge Management Association conference and learned about faecal sludge management technologies that are currently being used in Senegal but would be new to Kenya and how they can benefit the country's dire need for faecal sludge management from Engineer Mansor Fall. Less than 25% of Kenyans have basic sanitation, and throughout Africa, ~90% of sanitary waste is released without any form of treatment. In the slums, such as the the Kaibo slum, flying toilets are very common...we'll leave it up to you to research what flying toilets are ;).

Technical manager Isaac Musya hosted tours of the Machakos County Water and Wastewater facilities. The drinking water facility is a combined treatment unit, with aluminum sulfate, sodium bisulfate, sedimentation, and filtration treatment techniques occurring within one segmented treatment basin (composite treatment). However, they are currently in the process of building a much larger and more comprehensive treatment plant!

The wastewater facility is decentralized and can serve ~23 cu meters per day, which is about 3 exhaust trucks. Wastewater is treated via conventional standards, including traveling screen, sedimentation, anaerobic digestion, siphon basin, and drying of sludge. The operator, Steven, was very proud to show us around and thorough in his treatment explanation!

Women In Water And Sanitation

09/10/2022

We are super excited for our Fall 2022 Her2O fundraiser! We are going to assemble an international cook book full of the favorite recipes of women in water and sanitation. We are trying to make this cook book personal by adding personal and cultural anecdotes and stories.

Please submit one or two of your favorite recipes, along with the country/region they come from, by emailing them to [email protected] by September 24th. For each recipe, please help us tell a story about the recipe by also submitting the answer to two or more of the following questions:

1. Why is this your favorite recipe?
2. What is the significance of this recipe?
3. Who is or was your favorite person to make this recipe with?
4. What feelings does this recipe make you feel?
5. Are there any personal, family or cultural traditions associated with this recipe?
6. Tell us about your first, or an important, experience with this recipe or when/how you first discovered it.

Feel free to respond with additional info outside of these questions if it contributes to the story.

Please elaborate and provide context and details in your responses so we can tell the story! You can write the short story (3 paragraphs or less) yourself if that seems easier to you. Feel free to submit any pictures that contribute to telling the story. Please note that by submitting stories and pictures you are giving Her2O the right/copyright to reproduce, print and publish them.

Let's make this a successful fundraiser!

08/26/2022

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/bddma386

08/02/2022

Some great tips!

05/13/2022

How awesome is this? Thank you WaterAid for making this impactful short video!

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