Clean water and sanitary facilities for school children in India
Maintal, Germany/Pune, India, November 18, 2016
NORMA Group, a global market leader in engineered joining technology, is achieving major advances with its aid project NORMA Clean Water. The company renovated sanitary facilities at 14 schools near its Indian plant in Pune in 2016. This means that 25 of the 50 project schools now have access to clean toilets and washrooms that are separated by gender.
“We are proud to be able to report ongoing renovation work at the Indian project schools on the occasion of World Toilet Day 2016 initiated by the United Nations. Modern sanitary facilities improve the hygienic conditions at schools and prevent the spread of diseases,” said Werner Deggim, CEO of NORMA Group. “With NORMA Clean Water, we are helping to improve the conditions at schools in the vicinity of our plant in India and thus to provide access to education to more than 15,000 pupils.”
After analyzing the quality of the water at several project schools, NORMA Group installed filters that clean the water of pollutants and germs. This gives schoolchildren access to clean drinking water. One of the project schools is mainly attended by children of Muslim religion. NORMA Group financed the repair of a washroom here in which the students can wash their feet before they pray.
NORMA Clean Water has also been educating the people here on the importance of hygiene and clean water. More than 1,000 teachers were educated on these topics in 2016. The pupils drew charts on the school walls that show how to use water responsibly. They were also active outside of school. Members of the student clubs visited representatives of the education authority in Pune to draw attention to their needs and point out other renovation work that is necessary.
NORMA Group has been conducting the NORMA Clean Water aid project together with the children’s aid organization Plan International Deutschland since 2014. World Toilet Day is a United Nations initiative. Every year on 19 November, the organization makes people aware of the fact that 2.4 billion people worldwide have no access to intact sanitary facilities.