Newspapers and television...lets inspire some slum communities!

Street play in the Bengali Camp if the Bhoomiheen slum community, Delhi tomorrow at 11am to excite the already enthusiastic pilot project community members about the launch of the new garbage bin system on Monday morning. Everyone is invited!!!! ...Especially if you have a press-badge....or even just an oversized video camera.

“Saaf-Safai Sehat Lai.” Children could be heard enthusiastically chanting this slogan in the narrow alleyways of the Bhoomihin Camp in the Kalkaji district of Delhi.

PRESS RELEASE:

MIT-Rai students empower Delhi slum towards cleanliness

Can slum inhabitants clean up their own communities? A team from USA’s premier engineering school and India’s Rai Foundation believes just that. Through coordination with community leaders, government, and a local NGO, this team of college students is trying to reverse 20 years of filth and neglect in three weeks.
This Sunday at 11am in the Bengali Market in Bhoomiheen camp this team will perform a street play for the final day of community education. The aim is to further excite the already enthusiastic community members for the launch of the new garbage bin system on Monday morning. Other news channels have committed to covering this hope-filled and inspirational event and we would very much appreciate your help make this project a success.
For this effort, 4 students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, U.S.A.) have joined 6 students from the Rai Foundation (RF, India) to plan and implement a community project that will install local trash bins to remove waste from the waterways and other public areas. In the past, garbage has clogged the open sewage channels that run in front of each house and caused flooding of the alleyways and homes - especially during monsoon season. If this pilot project is successful, it will provide an inspirational blueprint for improved sanitation in all of Delhi’s slum communities.
A project to place local trash bins to improve cleanliness for 175 families seems simple, but as this team has discovered, it requires every effort from all the stakeholders. The community must believe that only they can change their living environment and a system must be put in place to support their efforts. The worker will be monitored by the MCD and a community committee of non-partisan community leaders. In addition, the local NGO Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) has agreed to take on a supportive supervision role to ensure the project’s sustainability.

MIT (USA) and Rai Foundation students answer questions about the new garbage bin system with the local manager of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Rai Foundation student introduces proud, community committee for slum sanitation project developed and implemented by MIT (USA) and Indian students.