Winnovators challenge raises £170,000 for WaterAid
Melanie May | 13 November 2018 | News
WaterAid’s annual Winnovators challenge has raised £170,000 for the charity, with Portsmouth Water crowned regional winner.
WaterAid’s employee development programme, Winnovators challenges teams from across the world to come up with a solution to a real problem the charity is facing as well as fundraise.
This year’s challenge focused on India where 44% of the total population in India still defecate in the open and only 57% of people use the improved water supplies available.
The ‘Portsmouth Water Tigers’ battled it out against 30 other teams from the UK, USA, Japan and Australia. It won Regional Winner Europe and Americas for its multimedia toolkit for children aged 6-14 years old in India to teach and develop their knowledge on hygiene. The toolkit consists of three different lesson plans, a top trumps style card game, handwashing technique and an implementation plan.
Australian-based ‘Team Praan’, meaning ‘vitality’ in Hindi, won the Overall Global Winners prize. They will visit India next year, where they will see how their sanitation solution prototype – ‘Poo Switcheroo’ – could help reduce people’s exposure to harmful human waste toxins with a double pit latrine.
The Apprentice’s Joanna Jarjue announced the winners, and said:
“It was really inspiring to be part of Winnovators and hear about all the great initiatives the different teams came up with to tackle challenges around ensuring access to clean water, decent sanitation and good hygiene, while also being creative to raise money for WaterAid’s lifesaving work.
“Not only did participants have the unique opportunity to help poor communities across the world; they have also built invaluable skills to take back to their own workplace that will help as they build their careers.”
Main image: WaterAid Winnovators event, London, 19 October 2018. Credit: WaterAid/ Oliver Dixon
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.