Meet Global Citizen Anoop Jain

Anoop Jain is the winner of the 2014 Waislitz Global Citizen Award.  He has exemplified the values of a Global Citizen through his work in founding Humanure Power (HP) in Bihar, India. HP was started in 2011 and builds community sanitation facilities in rural India. Anoop believes that building toilets addresses the underlying causes of poverty, which affect broader health, social, and economic change desperately needed in India.

How is Anoop reducing extreme poverty?

Humanure Power opened its pilot community sanitation facility on July 2014, and has already seen over 17,000 users, while hygienically disposing of 8 tons of human excreta. This effort will prevent disease and improve productivity as toilets prevent water-borne diseases caused by fecal contamination. Additionally, 40% of female school dropouts cite lack of school toilets as the cause. In building toilets Anoop is ensuring more girls will be able to attend school more consistently, empowering them to find jobs and improve their own economic agency.

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Wrap your mind around this: while Humanure Power improves access to toilets, millions of Indians are also gaining access to safe drinking water. How? In rural Bihar, the organization's toilet use is kept free to encourage use. To help offset maintenance costs, their facilities come equipped with a biogas digester. Waste collects here and decomposes to form methane gas. This energy source produces electricity that is used to power a water filtration system. Potable water is then distributed to the communities Humanure Power is working with at prices competitive with market rates.

What would winning the Waislitz Global Citizen Award mean?

Winning the Waislitz Global Citizen Award would directly enable HP advance its mission of improving access to toilets and safe water. This is an instrumental step in the fight to eliminate poverty. HP built its pilot facility for $30,000, and has improved access to toilets and potable water for over 3,000 people. A $100,000 award from the Waislitz Global Citizen program would enable the organization to start constructing 3 more facilities immediately, improving access to toilets and safe drinking water for nearly 10,000 Indians. Money from the Waislitz Global Citizen award would also go towards formalizing monitoring and evaluation methods. Demonstrating impact is crucial for garnering the support of government agencies, foundations, and other private donors, and will sustain HP's long-term commitment to ending poverty.