André Günter

André Günter

Function in dropforlife

Founder, President

Profession

Entrepreneur
Jury Member Venture Kick

Testimonial

Entrepreneurial mind-set and criteria to help people getting independent of third-party support.  Transparency for philanthropic investors and fans of dropforlife, with a promising approach to social start-up’s.

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Christoph Stäubli

Christoph Stäubli

Function in dropforlife

Member of the Board, Legal

Profession

Business lawyer, owner of the lawfirm Stäubli Advocate, Zurich; formerly Partner and Senior Counsel with Walder Wyss Ltd., a major Swiss law firm

Testimonial

Together with enthusiastic professionals, build a special organization which promotes self-helped projects in needy areas driven by local entrepreneurial initiatives. Provide professional experience to secure a legally sound architecture.

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Manuela Balma

Manuela Balma

Function in dropforlife
Member of the Board, Accounting
Profession
Managing Director in the Banking Industry
Testimonial
Seeking to make a tangible and positive impact on people and organisations, promoting a philanthropic and sustainable approach in the development aid through entrepreneurial projects involving the local population, sharing knowledge, expertise and time.
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Oliver Achermann

Oliver Achermann

Function in dropforlife
Management
Profession
Entrepreneur
Consulting Company in Business Development, Communication Management and for Special Projects.
Testimonial
Driven to do things the right way – smart, sometimes brave and always consequent. Full engagement for alternative ways to traditional business models in development aid.
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Marc Ocskay

Marc Ocskay

Function in dropforlife
Webdesign & Photography
Project Controlling Nexus Madagascar
Profession
Entrepreneur
Jury Member Venture Kick
Testimonial
My motivation to actively support dropforlife builds upon its unique philanthropic approach, where entrepreneurship is coupled with traditional development aid.
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Roland Oberholzer

Roland Oberholzer

Function in dropforlife

Finance

Profession

Chief Financial Officer in Food industry

Testimonial

My objective is to contribute and support the projects of dropforlife and its implementation. I appreciate a lot the applied philanthropic model to support and look after people and communities to create longterm independency. With entrepreneurial projects on the ground to allow people a better quality of life.

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Gloria Fernandez

Gloria Fernandez

Function in dropforlife

Marketing & Comms

Profession

Marketing & Comms Specialist

Testimonial

Life is about giving… That´s my purpose here: giving my best to spread the unique philanthropic approach of dropforlife, enabling people via entrepreneurship & traditional development aid.

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Safe Water Program

Safe Water Program, urban area of Kathmandu, Nepal

Investment size:
CHF 90’000 from 2012-2020
Impact:
  • Clean drinking water
  • Education (WASH)
  • Early awareness building for entrepreneurial thinking
Application:
Schools in the city and urban areas of Kathmandu
Technology:
WATA-Technology of  Antenna
Implementation:
ECCA
Sponsoring partner:
Victorinox

What is the project all about?

Our objectives

The overarching goal is to improve the hygienic environment by providing safe drinking water to schools and related local communities.
Our local partner Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA) has been promoting safe drinking water in Nepal by using Antenna’s WATA electro-chlorinators for several years already. After introduction of the program in 20 schools during the pilot project conducted during 2012–2014, the Safe Water Program has been extended and expanded to 15 new schools over the time period 2015–2017, reaching a  total of 35 schools being integrated. Since, 10 schools have dropped out of the program due to school closing, merger or integration into another NGO’s program. The schools integrated in the program over the previous years continue to be accompanied, thus aiming at reaching a total of more than 13,000 direct beneficiaries in schools and additional 70,000 people in the surrounding communities. In the third and last phase, 2018-2020, we are working with ECCA on the right measures to create maximum impact.
Door to Door Program @ Jana Jyoti School,Janagal
Drama Show, Related safe drinking water in Community
Refresher training on Chlorination
Refresher Training on Nature club management and WASH
Safe drinking water Station at Mechi School
talkin about the chlorine and safe drinking water in community people Through Wata Stall
Wata Stall by student
WATASOL-stall-1
WATASOL-phampleting-in-community-area
Oreintation-on-safe-water-n-sanitation
Door-to-Door-Program
Re-fresher-training-on-chlorination
WATASOL-stall-in-community
Wall-Magazine-published-by-Nature-Club
Orientation-on-safe-water
Celebrating-Global-Hand-Washing-Day
Pamphleting-in-schools-premises-to-aware-other-students

Key elements of the Safe Water Program

The Safe Water Program contains four main elements: Education, Infrastructure, Application and Extension from School to Community:
Education
  • Water conservation and management
  • Proper storage of treated drinking water
  • Hand washing
  • Orientation to school management committee; Training of teachers & students
  • Interschool competitions on various themes related to WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)
Infrastructure
  • Separate water tank for chlorinating and storing drinking water; related piping system
  • Facilities for proper hand washing
  • Smooth and sustainable operations and maintenance of facilities
Application
  • Local production of chlorine solution
  • Soap for hand washing
Extension to community
  • Social marketing activities (stall at market place, street drama, etc.)
  • Promoting and selling water disinfectant products
  • Water quality analysis within community and reporting it
  • Educating family clusters
  • Interaction with various stakeholder groups

Technology

At the core of the water purification technology is the proven WATA Technology of the Swiss based NGO Antenna Foundation. WATA technology allows the local production of sodium hypochlorite for water treatment and disinfection purposes. A WATA device is a simple tool to produce chlorine. It requires water, salt and electricity. WATA is simply using a well-known technique that has been applied to producing chlorine for almost 200 years. It targets communities that lack access to a chlorine supply chain or to a drinkable water supply.

Monitoring and Reporting

Our local partner ECCA reports results on a half-year basis, following defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) providing information on the success of the program. In addition, we aim for annual visits on site.

Safe Water Program – Impact 2019

NEXUS Nepal

Nexus Centers Gochhada, Sauraha, Basantapur – all in the district of Chitwan, Nepal

Investment size:
CHF 225’000 from 2016-2023
Impact:
  • Creation of social start-up businesses
  • Clean drinking water
Application:
Local entrepreneurs
Technology:
Mix between basic technology of the Swiss company Trunz Water System AG and local suppliers
Implementation:
Weconnex AG and Nexus Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Financial partner:
Symphasis Fonds Rainbow

* Restructuring in 2019 due to external factors in the regulatory environment (change of legislation), which lead to the unfortunate fact that it is economically not viable to continue as planned. Together with our project partner, we could ensure a continuation of the positive impact by using the technology without a requirement to amortize the loan.


What is the project all about?

Large parts of Nepal’s rural areas are contaminated with unhealthy high levels of arsenic and iron. With the support of Symphasis foundation, dropforlife finances three Nexus Centres in the Terai region of Nepal. The Nexus Centre concept was developed by the Swiss company Weconnex. The Nexus Centre concept follows the principles of social entrepreneurship. We pre-finance the creation of local water businesses by granting an interest-free loan over a period of six years. The repaid amounts can be re-invested into the dropforlife business model and create more impact.

Our objectives

The ultimate goal is that we can support the people in the generation of a stable income and becoming more independent by selling safe drinking water to the community.
With this project we create impact on three levels.
Economy
Creation of local jobs
Lower health costs, less loss of wages
Repayment of investments and operational costs
Modular approach adapting to local needs
Society
Access to safe and healthy drinking water
Education and training of adequate water- and hygiene practices
Increased standard of living and higher quality of living
Mutual commitment of all parties
Ecology
Clean water through clean energy
Sustainable management of water resources
Reduction of CO2 emissions
Reduction of logistic costs
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-1
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-2
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-3
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-4
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-5
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-6
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-7
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-8
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-9
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-10
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-11
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-12
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-13
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-14
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-15
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-16
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-17
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-18
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-19
Dropforlife Nexus Centres Chitwan-20

Technology

At the core of the water purification technology is the proven technology of the Swiss based company Trunz Water Systems. The solar-energy driven technology has been successfully tested by EAWAG and applied in over 40 countries with more than 800 installations. The technology has been considered adequate for the arsenic and iron contamination in the Terai region.

Monitoring and Reporting

Our local partner Nexus reports results on a half-year basis, following defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) providing information on the success of the program. In addition, we aim for annual visits on site.

Women Social Enterprise

Women Social Enterprise, region of Kathmandu, Nepal

Investment size:
CHF 5’500 for thee Women Group Social Enterprises
CHF 7’800 for 12 water infrastructures in schools
Impact:
  • Creation of social start-up businesses for 3 women groups
  • Clean drinking water
Application:
Local entrepreneurs
Technology:
WATA-Technology of Antenna
Implementation:
ECCA
Sponsoring partner:
Walder Wyss AG

What is the project all about?

In Patan, an urban area of Kathmandu, groups of three women get together and start a micro-business with the purpose to sell safe drinking water to their local communities. Currently, we work with three different groups to gain experience and learn how to implement the concept for maximum impact.

Our objectives

We pre-finance the investment into the infrastructure and technology via an interest-free loan. The women group learn to become entrepreneurial and to generate an income by producing and selling safe drinking water. The goal of this project is that these women groups become more independent of foreign aid and provide more stable access to safe drinking water throughout the entire year.
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-1
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-14
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-13
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-12
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-11
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-10
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-9
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-8
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-7
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-6
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-5
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-4
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-3
Dropforlife Women Group Social Enterprise-2

Technology

The underlying technology used is identical with the Safe Water Program applied in the schools (Swiss based Antenna’s WATASOL). The local implementation partner is ECCA.

Monitoring and Reporting

Our local partner ECCA reports results on a half-year basis, following defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) providing information on the success of the program. In addition, we aim for annual visits on site.

Status Report 2020

Status Report 2019

Status Report, July 2018