March 22 is World Water Day. Safe drinking water, basic health, hygiene education and sanitation facilities are nonexistent for impoverished people throughout the world. WHO/UNICEF estimates that the combination of theses conditions results in the death of 6,000 people every day, most of them children. Western NGOs that are working to build sustainable water supplies, provide access to clean water, develop sanitation, and promote hygiene, include: WaterAid, UK; Water For People, USA; WaterCan/EauVive, Canada; and Water for Survival, New Zealand.

“Within three years, Americans will discard about 130 million cellular telephones a year, and that means 65,000 tons of trash, including toxic metals and other health hazards.... Cell phones, along with other "wireless waste" from increasingly popular pagers, pocket PCs and music players, pose special problems at landfills or when they’re burned in municipal waste incinerators because they have toxic chemicals in batteries and other components, said the report [from Inform, an environmental research organization]. These include persistent toxins that accumulate in the environment... [and] have been associated with cancer and neurological disorders, especially in children. The report urges the industry to take measures to reduce the amount of cell phones that are thrown away by developing "take-back" programs so phones and batteries can be recycled and adopt industrywide technical and design standards so phones are not thrown away after a user switches services. The report said a number of states including California, Massachusetts and Minnesota are considering legislation that would make manufacturers pay the cost of managing the waste from electronic products, including cell phones. Internationally, Australia has implemented a nationwide cellphone recycling program and the European Union is considering actions to make manufacturers responsible for electronic product wastes.” From Associated Press.

Sometimes it’s not enough to just add Braille to your signage.

“Coco Raynes Associates, Inc. developed The Raynes Rail to provide the missing link between the entrance of a building and the desired location. Continuous Braille messages and audio devices positioned at strategic locations provide the impaired traveler with a degree of independence previously unattainable in unknown surroundings.”

The concept is simple: a handrail that incorporates Braille messages. It has been installed in hospitals, hotels, and museums, both indoors and outdoors. The system is modular, so the Braille messages can easily be changed. The audio messages are activated by photosensors and permit multilingual applications.

Grupo Fenix is a non-profit organization that supports renewable energy and sustainable development in Nicaragua, especially in low-income communities. The group works with students at the National Engineering University in Managua to develop low-cost, high-efficiency solar ovens for cooking or drying wood as well as solar cells for generating electricity for lighting and recharging expired batteries in a country with extreme poverty and very little infrastructure. The group also employs landmine survivors, teaching them how to install and maintain the solar units. The solar units are recycled from silicon wafers from the U.S. that are not quite pure enough to make computer chips out of.

In 1991 Trevor Baylis saw a television programme on AIDS in Africa. A health worker noted that advice on how to prevent the disease spreading further could be broadcast by radio if only radios and in particular batteries were not so expensive, often costing more than a weeks food for a family. So Trevor invented a clockwork radio powered by hand crank. The radios are produced in South Africa at a factory which is partially owned by seven disabled organisations and which actively seeks to employ the disabled. The rest is history.

A modern array of stylish, rugged, crank-powered radios and flashlights are available for purchase from Freeplay.

Arquitectos sin Fronteras is a non-profit that organizes professional architects and technicians who develop and promote the study, planning, management, design, and construction of public works projects in regions affected by poverty, discrimination, natural disasters and armed conflict. Volunteers work on everything from schools and public housing to hospitals and latrines in places from Congo to India to Peru.

“Dr. Juan Baughn, who oversees the [school] system for Edison [Schools Inc.], noted in a recent interview that some of his high school students were four to six years below grade level in reading....Those who were given books that appeared to be designed for grade school children were too embarrassed to use them effectively. Edison is now scrambling to find what Dr. Baughn describes as ‘age appropriate’ books that are written on a lower grade level but designed to be indistinguishable from books written for students who read well.”

From The New York Times.

The World Monuments Fund is a New York-based non-profit dedicated to preserving and protecting endangered works of historic art and architecture around the world. The World Monuments Watch issues the List of 100 Most Endangered Sites every other year. Some of these sites are also on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The World Studio Foundation runs a scholarship program for minority and economically disadvantaged students studying art and design in U.S. colleges and universities, a mentoring program for high-school students, and produces an annual magazine and quarterly newsletter to “stimulate, coalesce and channel social activism in the design and fine arts industries; to encourage discussion of the fields’ ethical assumptions; to promote professional practices sensitive to ecological and humane issues.”

In April 1998, activist Marc Kasky and attorney Alan Caplan filed a lawsuit claiming that Nike had engaged in unfair business practices by falsely advertising its Asian labor conditions. Nike claimed that its public relations campaign in which it said it did not run sweatshops could not be challenged under false-advertising laws because it was protected as non-commercial speech by the First Amendment. In a ruling issued on May 2, 2002, the California Supreme Court did not agree, and now a lawsuit against the company can move forward. Considering the evidence that the statements they made were false, this looks like a major blow to greenwashing campaigns across the board. Source: American Samizdat and AnitaRoddick.com. See also law.com, CorpWatch.org, and Nike’s press release which notes that their position was “strongly supported by the ACLU.”

Update, 1/11/03: The case is headed for the Supreme Court.