Newspaper Page Text
Isadora Pennington
From left, Joshua Sanders, Suzanne Harrity and India Flayes of Trashwater.
By Isadora Pennington
“If you want to talk about helping a
community, the starting point is always
water,” said Joshua Sanders, executive
director and cofounder of Atlanta-based
Trashwater.
Trashwater is a nonprofit dedicated
to providing clean drinking water to
impoverished urban communities.
The organization is currently operating
in the Los Brasiles and La Chureca
neighborhoods of Managua, Nicaragua.
Worldwide, more than 840,000 people
die each year from water-related diseases
and over 750 million people lack access to
clean water. It was during a humanitarian
mission trip to Cairo, Egypt that Joshua
and his travel companion, Colin Denlea,
first encountered the problems that unclean
water can cause when Joshua fell ill.
“I knew I wanted to do something
that was geared towards serving people,
I just didn’t know what exactly’ Joshua
explained. Being in the hospital from
drinking impure water gave him an insight
into the importance of clean water. “That
was the epiphany moment.”
Joshua and Colin founded Trashwater
in 2010, initially focusing their attention
on a boy’s orphanage in Cairo. “We saw a
need in Egypt,” said Joshua. “We were just
a couple of guys who saw a problem and
wanted to fix it.”
The two lacked formal experience in
starting and running a non-profit, and
they relied heavily on Google and their
background in church mission trips to
grow the organization.
In their research, Joshua and Colin
discovered a niche. While most similar
clean water initiatives were focusing efforts
on drilling wells and purifying river water,
there were still many people in urban
environments who had no clean water
solution. The Trashwater program set out to
provide continued support, education and
communication in addition to the filters
themselves to these communities.
Trashwater had to halt their work in
Cairo when the Egyptian Revolution of
2011 erupted in violence throughout the
city. “The political turmoil in Cairo made
it impossible for us to work there for quite
some time,” Joshua said. “Cairo is always a
wait and see kind of situation for us. We all
have families and partners and we want to
be cautious.”
AtlantalNtownPaper.com
While the unrest stalled the initiative’s
work in Egypt, they remained committed to
their cause. Joshua conferred with a friend
who was connected within the nonprofit
world about their mission and need for
a new community to serve. In turn they
were introduced to former Peace Corps
worker Coburn Murray, who had started
an initiative to provide food and education
in Los Brasiles.
“We talked for almost an hour,”
said Joshua of the conversation. “He
shared with me that at any given time
a large portion of his students would
ill with water related parasites and
diseases.” In the years that followed,
Trashwater’s partnerships with these
local communities have all but eradicated
those waterborne illnesses.
Originally, Trashwater provided
ultraviolet water purification systems,
but they have recently made the shift to
a terracotta bucket filtration system that
is made locally in Nicaragua. “We try to
source everything from Nicaragua as much
as possible,” Joshua said, emphasizing
the importance of empowering the local
community without creating a dependency
on the outside support. “At some point, you
do have to let the community take it over,”
said India.
There has also been a focus on training
people in the communities to make repairs
to the water filtration systems.
“We look for people in the community
with a sense of leadership,” said Joshua.
“We encourage them and equip them to
take over the projects.” By keeping the local
relationships intact, the organization has a
much better chance of affecting long-term
positive change.
As part of the company’s commitment
to evolving with the times and the needs
of their community, they have also started
offering clay stoves, or “rocket stoves” that
drastically reduce cook time, prevent cross
contamination and conserve resources.
As Trashwater continues to grow,
change, and adapt, they hope to expand
their aid into other communities and will
host fundraising events in Atlanta. They
are also planning to host a Latin American
themed block party in September to
celebrate the Nicaraguan national holiday
that commemorates the Battle of San
Jacinto.
To learn more about the organization,
visit trashwater.org. E33
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June 2015 | INtOWIl 27