Kurita Europe supports a project from Save the Children for improving children´s health in the slums of Delhi, India

Improving children´s health in the slums of Delhi. A good fifth of Delhi’s 16 to 25 million inhabitants live in slums – many of them in unhygienic conditions. Toilets on a household level are scarce and communal public sanitary facilities often filthy, dilapidated or completely wrecked. As a result, nearly half of all children under five and 80 % of young children defecate in the open.

In addition, many children don’t learn the importance of washing hands to prevent disease. Children who are weakened by disease are less receptive at school and quickly lag behind their peers. Some even drop out of school completely after long periods of absence. Without a basic education, let alone a school-leaving qualification, they are barely able to escape from poverty by themselves. This lack of perspective often continues over the generations.

Informing the community, developing sanitation facilities. Save the Children aims to break this vicious circle of poverty and lack of education by tackling issues at an early stage. They inform children, as well as their families and communities, about the connection between hygiene and health and the necessity of hygiene habits. So that they can change their attitude and behave accordingly. Furthermore they optimize the fresh water, wastewater systems and sanitation infrastructures. Surveys have proved that support of water and sanitation systems and hygiene education – so-called WASH activities – lead to a 12 % higher school enrolment rate in primary schools. In addition, WASH initiatives lead to a better average of educational achievements, because children’s health status is more stable and fewer lessons are missed. Therefore not only the health situation will be improved, but also education.

Project successes to date. For over three years, Save the children has been active in three Delhi slums and through their work, have reached 3.500 preschoolers and primary schoolchildren. What’s more, a further 20.000 young people and adults have been sensitized, as the children have shared their knowledge with their immediate environment. They also systematically conducted awareness-raising events in the communities. Over the course of the project, the Delhi government became aware of Save the Childrens “Community Managed Toilet” initiative and has meanwhile introduced it to other areas of the city.

Kurita is proud to support financially in such an important project. These actions are a prerequisite for allowing children to grow up to become healthy, working adults with the perspective of building a self-determined and dignified life for themselves and their families above the poverty line.

About Save the Children
Save the Children is the world`s leading independent organisation for children and believes every child deserves a future. Through projects worldwide in over 120 countries, they give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. Save the Children is distinguished with the label of the German Institute for Social Affairs (DZI), which is a proof of the efficient use of resources and an appropriate handling of donation. Save the Children has been working in India under the name of ‘Bal Raksha Bharat’ since 2008. Over this period, has already changed the lives of over six million people for the better.

About Kurita Europe
Kurita Europe is a subsidiary of Kurita Water Industries Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo (Japan). Kurita is one of the international market leaders in industrial water and process treatment. Our products and services for cooling water systems, boilers, membrane filtration units and drinking water inhibit scaling and corrosion, thus increasing the efficiency of systems, optimizing processes, and saving water and energy. Over 3,300 patents are proof of Kurita’s innovative approach to a resource-saving consumption of water.