Health, Sanitation and Food Security Project

Our project is going on full-blast with the implementation of vegetable gardening by 35 beneficiaries. The gardening activities uses organic fertilizer formulation coming from our dry toilets. The mixing of the fertilizer is done in such a way that pathogens are eliminated, mainly by adding lactic acid bacteria and vermi-composting. The vegetables grown are eggplants, tomatoes, radish, squash, bitter gourd and pulses. A garden of about 100 square meters will enable a poor family to have nutritious vegetables whole year round. We provided the seeds that the beneficiaries plant in the gardens.

This end of year we are planning to build 25 more ecosan toilets to add up to 115 toilets that we have built for this year. The beneficiaries are truly grateful with our support and we can observe in them happiness in being able to have access to appropriate sanitation system that improves their human dignity. We also noticed that diarrhea caused by water-borne parasites has been greatly reduced. 

Our project is ground-breaking and this year we are proud to say that we won an award from Israel for our ground-breaking initiative.

(SAN JOSE, Calif. and LIBERTAD, Misamis Oriental) Sept. 15, 2011 – CORA ZAYAS SAYRE, was today named as a laureate of The Tech Awards 2011, one of 15 global innovators recognized each year for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum, and presented by Applied Materials, Inc., selected CORA ZAYAS SAYRE from among hundreds of nominations representing 54 countries.

 Cora and her outfit the Water, Agroforestry, Nutrition and Development (WAND) Foundation has succeeded in developing cheap, robust and aesthetic composting toilets applicable in most  areas (upland, coastal, slums) using local materials which prevents water contamination and the spread of disease while producing valuable fertilizer from human waste. This has vast potential in solving sanitation problems for 2.1 billion people worldwide at the bottom of the economic pyramid including millions in the Philippines who do not have access to toilets. 

 The Tech Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity is one of the premier annual humanitarian awards programs in the world, recognizing technical solutions that benefit humanity and address the most critical issues facing our planet and its people. The awards program honors 15 scientists and innovators annually alongside the recipient of the Global Humanitarian Award. Laureates are selected by a prestigious panel of international judges organized by the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, and made up of Santa Clara University faculty as well as leaders from educational and research institutions, industry and the public sector around the world.