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>View discussions about this entry Country: South Africa
Organization: The Clean Shop
Field of Work: Sanitation
Year the initative began (yyyy) 1996
Project URL: http://www.thecleanshop.co.za
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? Teaching people, especially school children to refuse to use dirty and unhygienic public toilets and protest loudly and vigorously each time they encounter a dirty public
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? Our innovation is different and unique in that it seeks to correct this scenario by adopting an approach that uses private sector specialists in Sanitation Education and Maintenance programmes as the people who maintains clean environment in public schools and places. Private sector like The Clean Shop, does the cleaning and hygiene maintenance of school toilets by employing parents as toilet cleaners and monitors. The parents are properly trained, motivated, supervised and equipped to undertake the massive cleaning task. The result is that the cleaning and hygiene maintenance of school toilets becomes effective and sustainable. Toilet paper which was not usually available, which leads to rapid blocking of the water borne systems when other wiping materials such as socks, newspapers, stones, grass, etc., are used, is issued to each child on weekly bases.
Initially building of new toilet facilities was thought to be a solution of getting rid of dirty toilets, but it was rapidly found that this was not enough as even new toilets very quickly became dirty, blocked and unusable. Hygiene and Sanitation education has been found missing destroying any chance at an attempt to train pupils in the proper use of clean toilets and wider Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? • To develop the approaches in the use of the emerging private sector in contributing to the sustainable improvement of sanitation in the schools.
• To develop and implement training and awareness programme for better use of sanitation facilities in schools linked to vigorous teaching of fundraising projects by the schools to be able to continue on their own once The Donor and Corporate funding has sown the seed and stopped funding. • To stimulate the sense of ownership by the communities in their schools by initiating a serious campaign in public participation processes in order to achieve acceptable buy-in in How do you plan to expand your innovation? In collaboration with University of Venda, I intend to start a parent teaching education system that will teach parents how to clean and maintain clean toilets in the schools based on the following plan:
Mechanics in brief Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? we do have a number of existing partnerships in the form of our main and good clients we provide services t o and are happy and pleased to have us as their preferred service providers. We list them as follows not in order of importance as all are important to us and our social projects well being.
Currently The Clean Shop enjoys and does industrial cleaning contracts for big clients that include the following companies: Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. Our impact can be summarized by the way teachers and educators in the schools we work with have started using the same toilets as the school kids as they now appreciate that a clean toilet is for everybody, not only for teachers.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? Our current clients, like AngloGold Ashanti Limited, the largest gold mining company in Africa has this to say about our toilets cleaning services we render to them:
We hereby confirm the following: We would like to rate their performance under the following drivers: 1. Safety and Health: - They apply safety standards as per our requirements and their staff/cleaners are trained accordingly.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? Other measures of the impact of our innovation revolve around the safety issues of using industrial cleaning chemicals and equipment. This can be reinforced by the following paragraphs:
“Safety is a constraint. Any new initiatives must be safe even when replacing practice that is even less safe such as filthy and unsightly ablution blocks. The argument of the lesser of the two evils cannot be applied to hazards associated with sanitation and use of cleaning chemicals. The whole solution is dependent on the success of hygiene education and environmental awareness since no cleaning system can survive the constant abuse of toilets. Hygiene education itself is also dependent on a working cleaning system since pupils are unlikely to be responsive to hygiene, health and safety messages if the school toilets are not in a
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? Our beneficiaries are all the school children in schools we work with in South Africa and fortunate students at the University of Venda as well as the adults who are working on Gold Mines and in all building facilities we maintain clean in the country. Also important beneficiaries are all the people and parents we who work with us who are permanent employees of The Clean Shop and their families. Not forgetting all the owners of buildings we render services in as they know for sure that their employees and themselves are guaranteed clean offices and toilets all the time they are away from home and they are at their workplaces. For them we say:
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? Our initiative is self financed. Although our operations are completely directed to solving social problems like lack of proper and adequate sanitation facilities, for the sake of sustainability and growth, we work for profit. Unlike most NGO’s in the world we never pursue Funding Organization for project funds. We just carry on with marketing our services to organizations and companies that appreciate clean and safe environment for all the people that use their facilities like sports stadiums, mine hostels, etc., where public toilets are in demand to be kept clean all the time of the day. Therefore we charge a fee for our services and we do not work for charity and we do not utilize volunteer workforce as we believe that everybody who has worked must be paid a fair salary.
It is worth saying it here that we will never turn down a funding offer from any source. If we get a funder we could run training projects in other areas where there are no Provide information on your finances and organization: • Current Annual budget (2007 fiscal year):
Our current annual budget is R17 187 600.00 (USD $2 203 539.00) 1. Annual budget for the past 1-2 years (2006 and 2005): Annual budget for 2006 and 2005 was R7 596 000.00 • Annual revenue generated Our current sources of income are from the cleaning contracts we have with the following organizations / companies: • AngloGold Ashanti Limited West Wits Operations Mine Hostels Cleaning What is the potential demand for your innovation? The potential demand for our innovation is huge. Everybody, everywhere in the world, people go to the toilet more than once a day. Of all the people of the world and below heavens, nobody would like to use a dirty toilet. It is not high rocket science that we all love to use a clean toilet irrespective of our social standing, female or male, colour, religion, sexual orientation, able or disabled, tall or short, we all need a clean toilet when we need to relieve
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? From my point of view the main barriers of financial sustainability are caused by organizations and NGO’s who solely rely on grants and handouts for their survival. The Governments of the world and Funding Organizations should also not only rely on NGO’s to perform critical duties to uplift communities from poverty and despair, and only be willing to assist the NGO’s. ashoka Social Entrepreneurs like me and my company The Clean Shop should also be assisted with funds as we are also contributing tremendously to the upliftment of our people by giving the employment opportunities and clean safe toilet facilities. We need all the support also as we better in delivering the real services to the people of
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. In effective sanitation, the process and the methods can be as vital as the facilities themselves. People may know the location and purpose of a sanitary facility, but not how to use it correctly, vastly undermining potential impact. Building pipes or constructing facilities without also building a system of maintenance or education leaves you with very little. I operate on the principle that clean facilities are the most powerful form of persuasion—the more visible the change, the more convincing are my strategies. I seek to win hearts and minds of my fellow people through clean toilet facilities, and the rest would follow. More basically, I realized our most powerful impact would emerge from changing the way people used toilet facilities in their daily lives, and creating a culture of personal accountability for sanitary practices.
I approach the problem from the perspective of an educator rather than a cleaning contractor. I taught the skills to maintain facilities and use them correctly. I also sought to inspire a change in attitude, teaching people to refuse to use dirty toilets. In my thinking, cleaning facilities is what ensures continued use—“no one wants to use a dirty toilet, no matter how poor they are.” Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material: Since I was very young, i recognized the importance of education. My father was a school inspector and my mother a school principal. Both my parents encouraged us as their five children to take pride and joy in our education, resulting in all of us now being highly qualified professionals. I loved school so much, I used to remain there long after the last bell had rung and always volunteered to help with ground maintenance or odd jobs.
This love of education has remained with me and after noticing more and more children off school grounds during school hours, I was driven to find out why. I questioned over a hundred children about their truancy and many replied that they were going to the toilet, which lead me to the schools to investigate. The results shocked me so much that I devoted my life to cleaning school toilets and schools in general. I was one of the first trained black geologists in South Africa and worked as chief geologist on one of South Africa’s largest mines, with all the perks of a well paying job such as company cars and a house. I resigned from this comfortable job to follow a new path, and to give back to the education system that served me and my family so Contact Information:
Fhauwni Trevor Mulaudzi
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Ms Masana Mulaudzi, currently 2nd year Political Science and Economics student at University of Cape Town. She knows a bit about her father as detailed in her referral letter for her father as follows:
From: MASANA MULAUDZI,
Topic: Support statement from daughter to father
Date: 21 August 2007
Subject: My Father, TREVOR MULAUDZI GIBS/CSE NOMINATION SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR ON THE BRINK SUPPORT STATEMENT 2007
On coming into this earth, as a child one requires certain things... food, attention, love and care. As the daughter of Mr Trevor Muluadzi I have no hesitation on saying that he has provided me with all of the above and more. Never expecting anything in return but receiving it regardless because he has shown us so much respect over the years as we, his daughters, have grown from girls into young ladies.
As a young girl, I have seen Mr Mulaudzi be a role model for many in the community. He started his career as a geologist working for Anglo Mines after attaining his degree from Wits University. He then left his job to start The Clean Shop, his own cleaning company that addressed issues long neglected by society - hygiene. But whilst looking after the physical hygiene of the community, Mr Mulaudzi (also known as Clever Trevor) has been the source of educational and spiritual hygiene in our community. The Clean Shop, has worked to make sure that school children have frequent access to proper sanitation, an example of this is Wadela Primary School. The conditions at the school were a health hazard for the young children there, with toilets in a terrible condition and graffiti all over the place. It is terrible to think that the leaders of tomorrow were being educated in such conditions but that is why it was essential for Mr Mulaudzi to intervene. His business did not stop there, Mr Muluadzi is known to frequently give out bibles to those who ask, spiritually uplifting those in need and ensuring that whenever he is asked for something he gives the best he can and nothing less.
Over the years The Clean Shop has grown but has not been a selfish endeavour. Mr Mulaudzi, working with a great team of employees, has spread beyond the once neglected schools in the locations and he works on the Anglo mines around Carletonville. The job of The Clean Shop is to ensure that the mine hostels and dining areas are clean and user-friendly. Wherever Mr Mulaudzi goes on the mines, he is greeted with warmth and appreciation because to him the price of a kind word is nothing, and the joy received thereof is priceless. That explains why, so often, Mr Mulaudzi is called to be a motivational speaker for communities meetings, driving people with the power to change the situations in the world for the best. His charisma is a gift that he has shared with all around him, even serving as the Chairman on the Rockland Primary School Governing Body, and being the reason that education is propelled forward in small communities.
As an active member of the Ashoka Fellowship, Trevor Mulaudzi is said to be a pioneer for community development, municipal and health services. He achieves his goal of enriching the community by encouraging teachers to encourage their students to be hygienic because he recognizes the need for suitable living conditions. The Clean Shop has been called by Anglogold, "an example of a successful project" (www.anglogoldashanticom) and has been asked to share his ventures with many, including The Cat's Pyjamas organisation from England. Yet his drive for change has never rested, Mr Mulaudzi keeps at his job diligently and professionally but always touching the hearts of those around him.
Not only is he is a businessman but he is also a friend, a brother, a husband and a father. Mr Mulaudzi, is a father whose presence I always feel and unto who I give so much respect as he is the driving force for my ambition to enrich the community. Similarly, as the eldest of 5 children, he has become the foundation of our family. His family, is not restricted by a surname but enriched by those in communities across South Africa that have had the privilege of working with him as he serves them.
I am Masana Mulaudzi, 2nd of the