OHORIZONS: Low-Tech, High Thinking: A scaleable approach to clean water access
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.
Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?
Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Founding Story
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Executive Director
Clean Water and Sanitation.
While at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Natalie was the co-chair of the Stonewall Policy Alliance, a student group aimed at fostering discussion around LGBTQ issues inside and outside the classroom. Natalie and the leader of another identity based group, formed a coalition for all identity based groups in order to more effectively meet the needs of these groups and their constituents. The coalition met with professors, the administration, as well as other student leaders to discuss how to better represent these identity based student groups and their concerns as well as how to more effectively incorporate issues of diversity into school programming. This coalition was the first of its kind and was institutionalized as a permanent fixture of student governance thereafter. Throughout this experience, Natalie worked with a diverse group of stakeholders towards a common goal and was able to balance a myriad of interests, sometimes competing, to achieve success. Working in international development with a diverse group of partners like donors, implementing partners, corporate sponsors, etc also requires leadership and management skills to balance each stakeholder's interests and make sure the project is carried out efficiently and effectively.
Our projects are implemented through our on-the-ground partners. In our initial pilots we worked with: a community organization, LEDARS, in Bangladesh, a local rotary chapter in Ecuador, and a University of Illinois School of Engineering group in Mali. We are also starting a new project in Kenya in the coming months with the NGO Amua-Africa Project. OHorizons has directly provided some sort of assistance to these organizations, whether it is financial or technical (training or additional resources beyond the Wood Mold Construction Manual). Every month we receive approximately 10 downloads of our Wood Mold materials. Because it is open-source, we do not control who is implementing it or where, but are available to assist any group that chooses to use the technology as necessary.