By
Ayesha Singh
Published: 10th November 2013 12:00 AM
Sanchaita Gajapati Raju
Just when our story on NGO SANA, among the top ten finalists for the
coveted Google Impact Challenge 2013, was ready to go to press we
received a call that made us slam emergency brakes on the release of
pages. It was SANA (Social Awareness, Newer Alternatives)’s 30-year-old
founder, Sanchaita Gajapati Raju.
“I have some excellent news to share with your readers. We have just been promoted from being nominated to being declared winners of the challenge and have bagged Rs 3 crore as prize money,” she gushed. “I am now in a position to walk the talk with regards to all my plans, so listen on,” she continued.
A couple of days before the frenzied call, she told us how it all began. “In early 2011, I was producing a film for a fertiliser company in Morocco, which was working with an NGO in Gulbarga. During its making, I realised the impact of social intervention at the grass-roots level and decided I wanted to set up SANA. My pet projects would be in the segment of drinking water and sanitation,” says Sanchaita, who lives in Delhi.
Those pet projects have taken a new shape in the last couple of years and for all their efforts, three other NGOs along with SANA have won `3 crore for initiatives to tackle global issues using technology. SANA was also voted the fan favourite, polling the maximum number of votes out of over half-a-million votes polled worldwide. Its mass appeal stems from its core ideology of providing two basic things—clean drinking water and sanitary urinals. “Throughout India, villages lack access to clean and hygienic water and toilets. This spreads deadly diseases and creates unsafe living environments. With the money we’ve got, SANA will combine solar-powered micro-ionizing water purification and bio-digesting technology to improve water and sanitation infrastructure in villages of coastal Andhra Pradesh,” says Sanchaita.
“These systems will purify local water sources to provide clean drinking water and the waste water generated will power new community toilets. We also hope to provide 54 million litres of safe drinking water to residents in three years, bio-digesting toilets to 10 villages and improve health conditions for 25,000 people annually,” Sanchaita says enthusiastically.
The excitement and energy with which she talks makes it clear that Sanchaita has found her calling. Born in Hyderabad, the spunky do-gooder pursued a degree in political science from Delhi University before studying law. After finishing law school, she worked for a media company.
“We were producing award-winning documentaries, daily serials and entertainment shows. I was heading the finance and administration department. It was a great learning experience,” she says.
It was at that time that she presented her first social intervention project—a solar-powered water purifying compact station to the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. “I tied up with a company working in Laos for the technology. All I wanted was permissions and ground support from the Delhi government which I managed to get, so we decided to set a pilot project in RPVV School in East Delhi,” she says. This school had no clean drinking water nor did it have funds to buy water.
SANA installed a solar-powered water station in a record 30 days. “We trained the students and staff to maintain the system, created a distribution platform, where every student was allowed to take home five litres of clean drinking water every evening. A few other projects paved the way for us to think bigger and be bolder and here we are with our most recent water purification and sanitation mission,” she says.
When Sanchaita isn’t conducting extensive research projects or devising strategies for intervention, she likes to spend her time listening to music and planning travel itineraries.
“In my free time, I love to cook and bake. I am passionate about gardening, especially growing vegetables. But to tell you honestly, there isn’t a moment when I am not thinking about work,” she says. “I could have given this interview in my sleep as the issue of sanitation and safe drinking water has become my life and is surely more than just a job for me,” she beams.
“I have some excellent news to share with your readers. We have just been promoted from being nominated to being declared winners of the challenge and have bagged Rs 3 crore as prize money,” she gushed. “I am now in a position to walk the talk with regards to all my plans, so listen on,” she continued.
A couple of days before the frenzied call, she told us how it all began. “In early 2011, I was producing a film for a fertiliser company in Morocco, which was working with an NGO in Gulbarga. During its making, I realised the impact of social intervention at the grass-roots level and decided I wanted to set up SANA. My pet projects would be in the segment of drinking water and sanitation,” says Sanchaita, who lives in Delhi.
Those pet projects have taken a new shape in the last couple of years and for all their efforts, three other NGOs along with SANA have won `3 crore for initiatives to tackle global issues using technology. SANA was also voted the fan favourite, polling the maximum number of votes out of over half-a-million votes polled worldwide. Its mass appeal stems from its core ideology of providing two basic things—clean drinking water and sanitary urinals. “Throughout India, villages lack access to clean and hygienic water and toilets. This spreads deadly diseases and creates unsafe living environments. With the money we’ve got, SANA will combine solar-powered micro-ionizing water purification and bio-digesting technology to improve water and sanitation infrastructure in villages of coastal Andhra Pradesh,” says Sanchaita.
“These systems will purify local water sources to provide clean drinking water and the waste water generated will power new community toilets. We also hope to provide 54 million litres of safe drinking water to residents in three years, bio-digesting toilets to 10 villages and improve health conditions for 25,000 people annually,” Sanchaita says enthusiastically.
The excitement and energy with which she talks makes it clear that Sanchaita has found her calling. Born in Hyderabad, the spunky do-gooder pursued a degree in political science from Delhi University before studying law. After finishing law school, she worked for a media company.
“We were producing award-winning documentaries, daily serials and entertainment shows. I was heading the finance and administration department. It was a great learning experience,” she says.
It was at that time that she presented her first social intervention project—a solar-powered water purifying compact station to the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. “I tied up with a company working in Laos for the technology. All I wanted was permissions and ground support from the Delhi government which I managed to get, so we decided to set a pilot project in RPVV School in East Delhi,” she says. This school had no clean drinking water nor did it have funds to buy water.
SANA installed a solar-powered water station in a record 30 days. “We trained the students and staff to maintain the system, created a distribution platform, where every student was allowed to take home five litres of clean drinking water every evening. A few other projects paved the way for us to think bigger and be bolder and here we are with our most recent water purification and sanitation mission,” she says.
When Sanchaita isn’t conducting extensive research projects or devising strategies for intervention, she likes to spend her time listening to music and planning travel itineraries.
“In my free time, I love to cook and bake. I am passionate about gardening, especially growing vegetables. But to tell you honestly, there isn’t a moment when I am not thinking about work,” she says. “I could have given this interview in my sleep as the issue of sanitation and safe drinking water has become my life and is surely more than just a job for me,” she beams.
Source: The New Indian Express
