Vanakkam from Kameswaram!!
On October 2, in celebration of Gandhi Jayanthi (Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday) three of our newly built Ecosan Toilets were inaugurated with an opening ceremony. Every year we build this type of toilet not only in Kameswaram, but also in nearby villages. FIN has been building its model urine diverting compost toilets since about 10 years making improvements each year. It is a bio-model which does not need water for flushing. Urine and faeces are separated in a specially designed squatting slab and the faeces is converted into compost, which can be used as fertilizer. Ecologically minded farmers particularly appreciate this model. This year’s innovation was a set of QR codes, which could be scanned to listen to videos which explained the advantages of an ecosan toilet and how to use them. This was the idea of John and his team from NCAD Dublin, to make Ecosan an aspirational toilet. A set of four QR codes were pasted on the toilet, and scanning them with the telephone took the user to youtube to four videos explaining what an ecosan is, why it is useful, how to use it and FIN’s innovations on the ecosan toilet. Shanmugarajan made the videos with Paranjothi sir our field manager explaining these different aspects of the ecosan.
The inauguration ceremony was moderated by our Founder and Director Prof. Shyama V. Ramani. Harikrishnan, the Block Development Officer cut the ribbon at the residence of Senthil Kumar. We built a model Ecosan toilet at our office so that we could familiarise the local community with it. The FIN office toilet was inaugurated by the President of Kameswaram and the Village administration officer in the presence of Anganwadi Teacher Udayakumari, and three Irish students from TU Dublin (in collaboration with Engineers without Borders Ireland). The third toilet was inaugurated at Murugesan’s residence by Shyama V. Ramani.
Friend In Need India Trust