Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Turning Rural Indians Into Water Entrepreneurs

    In rural communities throughout India, having access to clean water does not always come easy. Sarvajal, originally a non-profit experiment, believes that water insecurity is a solvable issue, however. By helping those living in the rural communities take ownership through entrepreneurship, common sense, and the patience to reinvent old systems with more efficient technology, the group has achieved the ability to distribute small reverse-osmosis filtration plants and Water ATMs throughout the northwestern Indian states.

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  • Green Roofs in Big Cities Bring Relief From Above

    New York City black tar roofs cause a number of environmental problems, including air pollution, heat absorption that raises energy consumption, and storm water runoff in the sewer system. Efforts to turn these old roofs into green spaces cool the buildings, enable the containment of more rainfall, reduce sewer discharge, generate energy, and absorb carbon emissions. New York City has a pilot program offering financial help for green roofs.

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  • Patagonia's Founder Is America's Most Unlikely Business Guru

    Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor adventure retail company Patagonia, vowed to run the company from an eco-conscious perspective. From donating a portion of the store's income to registering as a benefit corporation in California, Chouinard and the company has stayed true to the mission. Now, other major companies are following suit.

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  • Saving Lives in a Time of Cholera

    A cholera epidemic can kill many people or few people—it all depends on the expertise of the doctors and their access to the right equipment. A program in Dhaka rushes both to countries when an epidemic is just breaking out.

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  • In India, a Small Pill, With Positive Side Effects

    In the developing world, intestinal worms stunt physical and mental growth, drain energy, and can inhibit school work for children. Deworm the World is a global campaign that lobbied the Delhi government to regularly distribute deworming pills to school children. The benefits decrease student absenteeism and increase cost-saving measures.

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  • Liter by Liter, Indians Get Cleaner Water

    Low-cost filtration plants are finding their place in some of the most underserved areas of India. Making a cultural shift from drinking well water to filtered water isn't well-received by all villages in the country, however. Thanks in part to word of mouth as well as a noted difference in health outcomes, there is still hope in fighting the fight to persuade local communities to pay for and drink clean water.

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  • To Maintain Water Pumps, It Takes More Than a Village

    Water pumps often break and no one locally has the skill or parts to fix them. Two columns on Water Aid’s program in India to train women to be handpump mechanics.

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  • Keeping the Water Flowing in Rural Villages

    In Tanzania, mapping of water points showed that nationally, less than half the existing rural water points were working—of water points that were less than two years old, a quarter had already stopped functioning. British charity WaterAid sets up workshops in poor countries like Tanzania and India to train mechanics in order to have a local fix for these problems. The mechanic position offers employment opportunities for women, fixes pumps for an average of 100 rupees (roughly $2.00), and repaired more than 1,100 pumps in the first 14 months.

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  • Biogas Offers Poor Countries a Cleaner, Safer Fuel

    In developing countries, environmentally friendly and practicality don't always go hand-in-hand. Biogas are changing that. With biogas technology, methane is derived from the feces of humans and animals and is used in place of traditional fuel which improves sanitation across these regions and is a benefit for the environment.

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  • Speaking Up for Patient Safety, and Survival

    Patients in U.S. hospitals suffer high rates of infection due to poor practices such as lack of proper hand-washing and lack of sanitization when inserting central line catheters. The Michigan Health and Hospital Association set out to reduce the rate of infection in their Intensive Care Units by developing a 5-step protocol for nurses and doctors to follow when inserting central lines. What they found was astonishing-- following these simple steps reduced the rate of infection to zero within three months of implementation.

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