GTO Spreads the Word

The GTO is teaming up with the ecosan program of German Government’s International Development Agency GTZ to provide training seminars for other NGOs who are already working on WASH projects, or who would like to get involved. These will focus on knowledge transfer, particularly with regard to sanitation provision in regions suffering from a sanitation emergency, and are planned for Berlin and Eschborn in the autumn of 2010.  

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From August 6 to August 8, 2010 the “Friedensfestival” took place in Berlin again. After it took place around Brandenburger Tor last year, the Organisations represented themselves at Alexanderplatz this year; all of them being committed to Peace in the World in their own way.

The GTO attracted publicity with our “Where would you hide?”-exhibition for two days. Many interesting conversation had been held and we have received support from over 100 (!) visitors who made a stand in our “Voices for Sanitation”-photo campaign.

We want to thank the organisers for the successful festival and also of course all our new supporters of our effort for worldwide basic sanitation - not to forget the GTO-volunteers that made our appearance a success.

Aware of 884 million people worldwide being without access to clean water and 2.6 billion people living without basic sanitation, which causes the death of 1.5 million children annually (more than die of AIDS, malaria and measles combined), the UN-member states voted in the General Assembly unanimously in favour of a resolution declaring the right to safe and clean water and sanitation as a human right. 443 million school days are lost each year as a result of water- and sanitation-related diseases.

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Having travelled around the world and met so many people of all nationalities the GTO’s travelling exhibition “Sanitation is Dignity” has finally completed the task set for it by the UN! And in order to mark the end of this extremely successful project the GTO has produced a magazine and report, which set out quite how many people around the world have been touched by its powerful message and gone so far as to put their voices and faces to the movement.