Sanitation

Diarrhea kills over half a million children under 5 every year – more than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV combined. Diarrhea deprives many millions of children of the nutrients they need to reach their full physical and mental potential.

With your support, iDE has developed a sanitation marketing approach that is proving far more effective than traditional public health campaigns. Working with local toilet businesses, we have been able to make buying a toilet easy, affordable, and even fun – with aspirational marketing campaigns that appeal to the real reasons people want a toilet.


We have seen the impact in Cambodia, where the proportion of rural families with a sanitary toilet has risen from 28% to over 80% in 10 years.

Adam Adamu
Azumpagaama

I did this to prove to
women that we can take
care of ourselves… We can
do anything we want.”

In 2018, Adam Adamu Azumpagaama became the
first woman to own and operate a toilet business
selling through Sama Sama – the sanitation brand iDE
has established in northern Ghana. With your support,
iDE has trained over 100 toilet entrepreneurs like her,
teaching and coaching production and business skills.

Adamu gets satisfaction from providing an essential
service in her community, building a business and
being a role model for her daughter, Rida – after whom
she named her business. “I hope by watching me
that she will be empowered, satisfied and confident

in herself,” Adamu says. Being a woman in a male-
dominated industry is not easy, but she is inspiring

other women to become toilet entrepreneurs as well,
transforming sanitation in northern Ghana.

Supporting entrepreneurs to sell over a million toilets and dramatically improving people’s access to basic sanitation is something to celebrate, but you can help us take the next steps to bring better health and dignity to all.

Your donation to iDE powers entrepreneurs to:

  • develop and deliver new business models to safely remove, transport and treat toilet waste in rural areas (including the “Shitmaster” septic service initiative in Ghana)
  • scale up access to afforadble and innovative solutions like the biodigester toilet, toilet that turns waste into cooking gas
  • learn from our success in Asia to scale up rural sanitation services in Africa

Join the sanitation revolution!
Support iDE’s Global Water and Sanitation (WASH) Initiative.



Other Initiatives by iDE

Stay in touch with us

Get the latest news, updates, and events from iDE right in your inbox. Find out what we’re doing around the world and towards which projects your donations are going.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.