Youth Venture

Whitman Direct Action is a student organization dedicated to helping marginalized people by promoting sustainable, community-focused development.

Then
Since its founding in 2005, WDA’s structure has been purposefully freeform. It is now tradition to, at the beginning of a new year, openly discuss a number of potential projects project until a single project direction is settled upon. Therefore, there has been no specific project that the group has sought to “stand for,” instead, the “action” that the group has taken from year to year has changed depending on the proposal passed by that year’s WDA members.
Its first project, the Build-A-House Project, began before WDA had been formally established. The team built a home for a family left destitute by a fishing accident. Building off the success of the first project, the Central American Biodiesel Project in 2006 entailed hosting two international biodiesel conferences and co-founding biodiesel cooperatives and resource centers with organizations throughout Honduras and Nicaragua in order to help marginalized communities grow and produce their own fuel.
Now
We’ve taken on the issue of clean drinking water in rural India.
By the facts:
+India has the second largest global population at 1.25 billion people
+226 million of those do not have access to safe water
+21% of communicable diseases in India are water-related
+In Maharastra State, the site for our conference, around 700,000 people contract water-related diseases annually
+Nearly 70% of India’s surface water is contaminated by pollutants and most of its water is unsafe for human consumption as well as for use in agriculture and industry
Appropriate Water Technology Study Group
Our mission is to better comprehend the complex nature of designing and implementing Appropriate Technology (AT) projects in marginalized rural communities. Presently, many AT projects quickly fizzle, failing to raise a community’s quality of life. The problems that face AT projects are not merely technological obstacles. Rather, the most challenging hindrances are region-specific cultural, religious, economic, and political dynamics. Anecdotal evidence illuminates the need for a comprehensive study that examines these diverse impediments so we can begin to address them more effectively.
Our study group is comprised of WDA members, United World College professors and students, and Sadhana Village staff. Our case study of AT impediments in the Kolwan Valley where Sadhana has over 13 years of experience entails surveys, interviews, and participant observation. We will gather information regarding the multifaceted socio-political systems hindering the success of AT projects. Collaboratively, we will evaluate the information and synthesize a report describing and assessing our findings. Finally, we will provide recommendations for strategies to adequately address these obstacles to garner grant monies.
Safe and Sustainable Water Conference
In order to foster clean water development in rural India WDA is hosting the Safe and Sustainable Clean Water Conference on 19 March 2008 at the Nehru Science Center in Mumbai, India. The conference will have presentations by prominent NGOs, government officials and lawyers to train and educate organization representatives and community leaders on local and regional water issues and provide participants with the space and resources necessary in order to share their knowledge and experience. After presentations, there will be a public forum brining together community members, NGOs, and water development experts designed to facilitate the connections and the exchange of information essential to addressing local challenges. There is zero cost of attendance to participants and travel scholarships will be available.
(Taken from WDA website, whitmandirectaction.org)