photos DR Fresh Life
The 2012 Finalists of Cartier Women’s Initiative Award are selected from an applicant pool of over, 1,OOO projects, the finalists for 2012 come from 15 different countries. They lead companies that span sectors from disaster relief to sanitary waste management, education, healthcare and employment. UFFP met one of the African finalist, her name is Lindsey Stradley. She is the co founder of Sanergy in Nairobi Kenya.
Nairobi Slums
LINDSEY STRADLEY, SANERGY Kenya
Affordable sanitation units and waste management solutions
Community Marketing Event
UFFP editor met with Lindsey in Paris to discuss about her company and what Sanergy brings to kenyan slums and their inhabitants.
1 ) Why your concerns for sanitary issues ? Two and a half billion of people around the globe lack access to adequate sanitation. In Kenya alone, there is eight million people living in slums who do not have access to it every day. Sanergy leverage and markets base the products. We build and install sanitation franchises. We provide small scale high quality toilets that costs 50000 kenyan shillings. It’s about 500 hundred dollars and with that our entrepreneurs get all the support they need. Not only they get the toilet building but also hand washing stands, solar engines, all the hardware. So businesses can stay open even in the dark.
Lindsay-at-opening-celebration-for-new-sanitation-franchise
What are they made of ? prefabricated concrete, the walls are separate, they are also prefabricated. It’s for men and women, and in the slums of Nairobi, it costs like 5 shillings per use. Even after all the expenses, our franchises earn about 1000 dollars per year for the toilet business they have.
Family-Using-Fresh-Life-Toilet
2) Do you provide services with that ? One of the main one is the toilet branding called Fresh Fife. We also give proper training and equipment to bring newfound respect to the job carried out by workers!
They also have to keep hygiene standards most importantly. In general we are here to coach them to be successful as small business owners.
Fresh-Life-Toilet-inside
3) So you bring awareness as well ? yes most certainly, they learn why it is important to keep a good level of sanitation and we show them the connection between sanity and good health. Of course that does not immediately change people’s behaviour. It’s not always a matter of knowledge it takes a lot of practice before changing habits
4) The owners know their community in general? Yes and because of that, they will be our best users. They can commend on their community and ask them to be the users of the toilets.
5) How about the collection of the waste? In some areas it is so dense that you can’t get trucks to the septic tink. We collect then in double sealed containers, so that there is no risk of accidents or contamination.
6) You recycle the waste ? yes we use it for fertilizers to small whole farmers. It’s an organic fertiliser so you can use it and it is good quality and affordable because made domestically. In Sub-Saharan Africa there is a high demand but with small supplies. The costs are also high, in Kenya its twice the cost of the global average price. There is no domestic production of fertilisers in Kenya, everything being imported, the cost of transportation is very high. So once again our products provide good prices.
7) Your Cartier Experience ? it helped me realise the place and the role of women in what we do. Most of the people who operate with our toilets are women, users as well. I knew that already when I was applying for Cartier but overall it is indeed an amazing experience !
