In this Issue:

Revolutionizing Sanitation in Madagascar
Additional Resources Related to Sanitation
Earned Income Tax Credit
Additional Resources Related to the Economy
Celebrating 20 Years
News Briefs
Calendar Notes

Revolutionizing Sanitation in Madagascar

One of the greatest challenges to food security, livelihood, and educational opportunities throughout the world is disease caused by poor sanitation. Poor sanitation causes millions, mostly children, to die each year from diseases transmitted through contaminated water. Worldwide, four out of ten people do not have access to simple sanitation.¹

In Madagascar, approximately 14 of 17 million people do not have access to safe water or sanitary toilets, causing diarrheal illnesses that contribute to Madagascar’s high infant mortality rate, low average life span, and about 24 percent of work and education productivity lost each year. Ultimately, these conditions keep the Malagasy people from pulling themselves out of the poverty trap.

In 2002, Caring Response Madagascar Foundation (CRMF) joined with several non-governmental organizations and foundations to find a way to revolutionize sanitation in Madagascar. What resulted was the Sanitec sanitation project, the first sanitary wares production facility of its kind in Madagascar.

CRMF’s sanitation efforts began with education outreach. CRMF partnered with local artists to perform puppet shows and host dialogues about good hygiene and healthy living practices, including the need for family latrines and hand-washing. As a result, the desire for affordable sanitary facilities skyrocketed, and thousands of residents began asking for the installation of a modest family latrine.

But because essential component parts—chiefly ceramic sanitary wares—were unavailable locally and must be imported, the cost of a latrine remained outside the reach of most poor families.

Over the course of two years, CRMF pioneered Sanitec, an environmentally friendly process for developing latrine components from locally available raw materials. Sanitec reduces the cost of latrines by 70 percent and makes them affordable to low-income families.

When CRMF completed construction of the Sanitec plant in November 2010, it had received 20,000 orders for latrines and employed 55 local women and men at its production facility. At full production,  and with 70 employees, the Sanitec facility will produce as many as 36,000 latrines per year, thus impacting 180,000 people each year and close to one million in five years. Full-scale production is expected to turn a profit, too, which will be invested in a variety of other projects for the poor, such as literacy programs and maternity health projects for women.

Due to Sanitec’s high potential, the World Bank Development Marketplace selected Sanitec as a finalist in a 2007 competition for “bottom-up” development ideas that deliver results and have the potential of being expanded or replicated. In addition, Sanitec has the capacity to help other non-governmental organizations like Catholic Relief Services and USAID to purchase large numbers of toilets to meet the needs of their own sanitation and hygiene programs.

Besides latrines, Sanitec will also produce water purification systems for safe drinking water and smokeless ceramic cook ovens, which will reduce the use of charcoal in cooking, reducing deforestation and improving air quality.

¹ www.un.org/waterforlifedecade

 

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Additional Resources Related to Sanitation:

United Nations Millennium Development Goals

The MDGs, a series of targets for reducing social and economic ills, allby 2015, includes the goals of halving the proportion of people who cannot reach or afford safe drinking water and halving the number who do not have basic sanitation. The eight MDGs form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and the entire world’s leading development institutions:

•    End Poverty and Hunger
•    Universal Education
•    Gender Equality
•    Child Health
•    Maternal Health
•    Combat HIV/AIDS
•    Environmental Sustainability
•    Global Partnership

In 2010, the United Nations explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation, claiming it to be essential to all other human rights. Indeed, the life and full development of each person, which is the foundational principal of Catholic social teaching, cannot be realized without safe water and sanitation.

Water and Justice

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati website offers helpful resources to learn more about water issues through the Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation at www.srcharitycinti.org/opjic/water/.

The United States spends less than 1 percent of its budget on development assistance to reduce hunger and poverty in foreign countries.

How Can you Help

Bread for the World supports U.S. aid for hunger and poverty programs in developing countries that help alleviate the underlying causes of hunger, poverty, and desperation. To find out more and to support the campaign, go to www.bread.org.

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Earned Income Tax Credit

By Jennifer VonGries

In the United States, economic challenges have forced families to struggle with maintaining the essential building blocks to a good life. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) helps hardworking families apply for earned income and child care tax credits. Through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, tax returns are prepared and e-filed for free, leading to larger refunds and immediate extra cash.

With the support of SC Ministry Foundation, a VITA site has been held at Elder High School in Price Hill, Cincinnati since 2006. Refund dollars at the Price Hill site totaled 2.1 million dollars from 2006-2010. This year, 506 tax returns were e-filed, resulting in over $700,000 in refunds.

Tax credits benefit individuals, families, and the whole economy. They can make a significant difference in people’s lives, helping them prevent or work their way out of poverty.

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Additional Resources Related to the Economy:

Beyond the Poverty Line
by Rourke L. O’Brien and David S. Pedulla

The current poverty line is $10,830 for a single person and $22,050 for a family of four. The poverty line was determined in 1964 by calculating the amount of money it costs to buy a basic basket of food and then multiplying that amount by three. Is the Federal Poverty Guideline—a measure based solely on the cost of food—broken? Stanford Social Innovation Review published the article “Beyond the Poverty Line” which argues that a new approach is needed. Read the full article at ssireview.org/articles/entry/beyond_the_poverty_line.

Catholic Charities’ New Measurement of Poverty

Catholic Charities USA has embraced a new way of measuring poverty called the American Human Development Index, a composite measure modified from the index used internationally by the United Nations. It combines indicators in three fundamental areas: health, knowledge, and standard of living. The current poverty measures in the United States take into account income only, which does not account for the holistic values of each person central to Catholic social teaching. To read more, download the latest issue of Charities USA at cf.catholiccharitiesusa.org/Spring2011CharitiesUSA.pdf

Mind the Gap!

Did you know that the wealthiest one percent of our population owns more than 90 percent of us combined, that the wealthiest ten percent of our population owns more than three fourths of the nation’s wealth, or that the median African American household has less than ten cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by the median white family?

If you wonder how these disparities became so extreme and why so few people are talking about them, join NETWORK’s new Mind the Gap Campaign. NETWORK is a national social justice lobby. Visit www.networklobby.org/campaign/mind-the-gap to learn more.

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Celebrating 20 Years

This year Marybeth Schroer celebrates 20 years as an SC Ministry Foundation employee, the Foundations longest employed staff member. On June 1, the Sisters of Charity honored Marybeth in an appreciation of her years of service and dedication to the Sisters of Charity. Congratulations Marybeth and thank you for your years of service.

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News Briefs

 

Sr. Sally Duffy, SC, the Foundation’s President and Executive Director, and other Christian leaders in the country attended the Easter Prayer Breakfast hosted by President Barack Obama on April 19 at The White House. During the opening service, President Obama addressed the audience with an Easter reflection. “Jesus’ death and resurrection puts everything else in perspective,” the President remarked. After the prayer service, there was a series of briefings on issues of concern to the religious community.

 

Thank you to Sr. Barbara Hagedorn, SC for eight years of service on SC Ministry Foundation’s Board. Sr. Barbara has fulfilled two terms as President of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. We are most grateful to her for enhancing the Foundation’s mission through her guidance and leadership.

 

Welcome Sr. Joan Cook, SC to SC Ministry Foundation’s Board. Sr. Joan is the new President of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. Sr. Joan has been serving on the Foundation’s Program Committee and assumes leadership of the Sisters of Charity effective July 1. We look forward to her continued commitment and leadership on the Foundation’s Board.

 

Loretta O’Donnell, Director of Communications and Program Officer, received this year’s Sister Peg McPeak Alumni Award from the College of Mount St. Joseph for extending the mission of the College as a professional in her field. Loretta received the award May 1.

Calendar Notes

View upcoming calendar dates for the January 2012 Funding Cycle by clicking here.

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