Habitat for Humanity Launches it’s ‘Sensitise for Sanitise’ Campaign

Habitat for Humanity India, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the cause of housing and sanitation, launched its biggest sanitation campaign on 9^th October 2014, ‘Sensitise to Sanitise’ flagged off by Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, Habitat for Humanity IndiaBUILDS committee. The campaign aims to mobilise support for the construction of  100,000 sanitation units across India by 2015. The campaign also aims to bring in behavioural changes through awareness workshops and training conducted by experts to help the people use sanitation facilities in the right way.

Speaking at the launch, Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chair, Habitat for Humanity IndiaBUILDS committee says “I believe, proper sanitation is among the most basic want of mankind.  Unfortunately in our country, almost 50 per cent of our population does not have access to sanitation facilities. Consequently they suffer the indignities of going in the open.  Seized of this issue, we at Habitat for Humanity, aim to build 100,000 functional toilets across India by 2015. We flag off the first step towards this with Habitat for Humanity S2S campaign. We owe it to ourselves and to our country to support this need.  I urge you all to join us and extend every support in this endeavour that will make a difference to millions of people.”

Mr Rajan Samuel, Managing Director - Habitat for Humanity India, says, “We are excited to launch the S2S campaign. With the government’s vision to provide sanitation to all in India, this campaign is a step towards building a clean India – a better India.  Our campaign will definitely support this national cause through multi-stakeholder partnership.  With this, we hope to bring better and healthy living conditions for the marginalised communities.

More than 600 million people in India have to resort to open defecation. The UNICEF report reveals that  30% of marginalised women are assaulted every year as lack of basic sanitation forces them to venture out at odd hours. Poor sanitation also results in high child mortality rate and an increasing number of uneducated girls due to poor sanitation facilities in schools. Vulnerable women face security risks as they venture out at solitary hours at night in search of a place to defecate. Practicing open defecation results in unhealthy and unhygienic living conditions.

The S2S campaign urges the corporates to support 500 sanitation units (minimum) by contributing towards the construction of toilets for women and children, also encouraging individuals to pledge monthly giving through payroll or direct account transactions and HNI’s to adopt a community of 100 households and donate for construction of toilets.

Habitat for Humanity’s ‘Sensitise to Sanitise’ campaign is a step towards making a positive change in the lives of marginalised families specially, women and children who suffer the most because of the lack of proper sanitation means. It is an effort towards restoring dignity and security in their lives.

About HFH India:

Habitat for Humanity India is an international NGO that works towards housing and sanitation, having served more than 54, 000 families across 17 states of India. For over 30 years, Habitat and its partners have been working with low-income, marginalized families to build homes, provide housing-related services and spread awareness on the needs of proper housing & sanitation.

Habitat India through its disaster response programs has helped rebuild the lives of more than 20,000 disaster affected families in India through emergency shelter kits, repair of damaged houses and construction of new homes.

Habitat’s disaster risk reduction initiatives help build capacity and preparedness of the local communities against future disasters.

For more information please visit us at www.habitatindia.in