Hasta La Ideas

There is a sanitation crisis in India. Thousands of children die every day from preventable diarrhea. Women spend 200 million hours collecting water every day. For every $1 invested in water and sanitation, $8 is returned in increased productivity.

Armed with these startling facts, WASH United (WAter, Sanitation & Hygiene) and innovation consultancy Quicksand is launching a 6-week campaign to proselytize with song, dance, theater and art about their message of clean water and sanitation for all. Taking inspiration from typical Indian mela, village carnivals, the Great WASH Yatra is a traveling mega-event journeying across 8 locations in 5 Indian states this Fall. Along with the standard fare of rides, performances and vendors of all kinds, the Great WASH Yatra will feature projects from a select group of Yatra Fellows.

Funded through the Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GIZ, you can be part of a unique entertainment experience while enacting behavioral change through a robust educational outreach program. The program fellows have an opportunity to participate in both the grassroots promotional campaign as well as the actual caravan for the Great WASH Yatra. Festivities kickoff on October 2nd, Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday, and wrapup on November 19th, World Toilet Day (who knew?)

If you’re passionate about design for social impact and interested in a little adventure, here’s your opportunity to participate:

• Create a proposal for what you would like to at the Great WASH Yatra.
• Your proposal can incorporate any medium.
• Put together a projected budget.
• Submit your ideas by July 25th, 2012!

Check out the video below to get a taste of what’s in store. The performance highlighted is the culmination of a month-long collaborative project undertaken as part of the Unbox Festival. A collaboration with an international team of performance makers, writers, artists, designers and traditional Indian puppeteers, the production will be on tour with the Great WASH Yatra.

The Great WASH Yatra Fellowship from Laawaris on Vimeo.

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