Hi! I'm Hanna, I am an entrepreneur from Turku, Finland. I have spent most of my time in West-Africa during the past 6 years. Ghana is a second home to me. I love Ghana, her people, its nature, rhythms and colors.
BUT................
This BUT is mostly illustrated to us and the world as photos and videos of impoverished mothers and children with round bellies and flies in their eyes. That's not what I see. I see a beautiful opportunity of all of us working together for common good. To improve all of our lives. To make an direct impact on people's lives.
It is because of this opportunity that I put together a great team and created Finneco Solutions. We design and build composting toilets for developing countries, especially for locations where water supply is an issue. Our first focus area is Ghana where we've set up a franchise, Finneco Solutions Ghana. Believe me, a lot of people there dream of having a proper toilet. Actually, the country was recently ranked as second in Africa with open defecation (DailyGude, 2015).
Many Ghanaian's cannot afford to buy a toilet at one time. For that reason public shared toilets become option, where people pay every time per every use, or worse open defecate. This behavior is unsanitary, unsafe and dangerous as the spread of contagious diseases cause massive health issues for the men, women and children of Ghana.
Now, let me get to the point! I'm calling on you or your company to get involved in our Toilet Dream Campaign. To make an impact and do something that is important in so many ways. I'm asking you or your business to purchase 50% of a Finneco Solutions toilet for a Ghanaian family, school or community.
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Every penny of your purchase goes to the construction and installation of the toilet facility; for real people with real need. The qualified recipient will pay for the other half in accordance with an affordable payment plan chosen by them. My idea is; that the customer's monthly payment for the toilet is similar to the amount spent for public toilets.
What We Need & What You Get
Our goal is to reach an amount of 20 000€ from this campaign. That will be 100% used for building the Finneco composting toilets to serve a total of 700 Ghanaians in need. The recipients will be selected by our team. Each will pay us the remaining half of the toilet in installments and that will cover the rest of the building & labor expenses.
In the event we do not reach our goal of 20 000€, we will use the money raised to build as many toilets as possible.
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Then what will you get?
You or your business gets a special opportunity to make a straight, concrete impact into real needs of real people.
Once the composting toilet facility purchased by you / your business has been built and installed, we will send you a certificate and a photo or video of the dream that you have made come true! Additionally, depending on the product purchased you can get your/ the name of your company on our website!
This is a unique chance for your business to get novel marketing value for accomplishing CSR of great worth.
The Impact
So why do people dream of toilets?
What is the impact of making the Toilet Dream come true?
Could you imagine a day at school or work without a toilet? What about a home without toilet? I've seen these realities behind the happy, easy-going scenes in Ghana. People dream of having a proper toilet, because it offers:
- Health. Different contagious, air- and waterborne diseases (e.g. cholera) can be significantly reduced by using and maintaining a hygienic toilet. Bad sanitation is the second common cause of death after malaria in developing countries.
- Safety and privacy, especially for girls and women who often experience sexual harassment when practicing open defecation or using public toilets.
- Gender equality for education. When girls and boys have safe, separate toilets and the menstrual management for girls is taken into consideration girls have much greater opportunities for education.
- Cost-effective way to reduce poverty. Improved sanitation saves time, increases production and reduces health costs.
Then why buy only half of a toilet?
We believe that by involving the customer to cover half of the toilet cost will create truly sustainable solutions for sanitation. The customers can feel proud and responsible when carrying out their part for their basic needs and common good for their living area. They will use and maintain the facilities with better care, which will extend the lifespan of the toilet.
Generally, this system will also help change "the getting for free" attitude. In several cases poor areas get help and donations from many organizations and NGOs and at some point this will not encourage the people to be initiative and responsible to help themselves and improve their lives and living conditions.
And why composting toilets?
Composting toilets fit excellently to the climate conditions of most developing countries.
The composting takes place efficiently and fast.
Our composting toilets run water-free. That's a great advantage in countries where there's water shortage and the sewage systems are undeveloped like Ghana.
Commonly used pit latrines with poor underground structures cause leakage of the waste into water tables and the heavy rains and floods during the raining season spread severe diseases from the open sewers. Such problems have been taken into consideration with our products.
The underground structures of the composting toilets are waterproof and there's a flood proof solution of one-half meter in most of our models.
When the facility is used and maintained all the waste breaks down into natural compost manure. This is a very affordable and Eco-friendly waste treatment solution. The compost manure collection from our facilities is easy and there's no need for trucks to zigzag on the bad, narrow roads of overpopulated urban areas.
In the capital of Ghana, Accra, 120 trucks of untreated waste is dumped into the Atlantic Ocean every day because of insufficient waste treatment plants for the highly populated city. Instead of creating waste, our toilets provide compost manure as an end product. It is an affordable natural fertilizer to be used by farmers.
Other Ways You Can Help
Please spread the Toilet Dreams to your family, friends and work place or other potential businesses to join this project!
Also use the Indiegogo share tools to share Toilet Dreams on your social media channels. Make an impact with us. Thank you.
