It has been a longtime coming since we first announced it, but we are pleased to finally unveil the teaser trailer of our upcoming film entitled “3 Pounds of Rice”. The short documentary features Kevin and Ryan’s 24 hour slumstay experience in Bhubaneswar. What started out as a personal challenge quickly evolved into a filmed experience that will provide some insight into the people, the culture, and daily lives of one of the communities we work with.

Project Sammaan is a development project that seeks to create improved sanitation services for the urban poor residing in slums in India. The project is being driven by a consortium that consists of Quicksand Design Studio, Jameel Poverty Action Lab, & the city governments of two large cities in India. It is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

The name “Sammaan” stems from our belief that it’s very important to transform the user experience for these facilities from one heavily coated with shame to one of respect and dignity.

The project seeks to design & build 119 sanitation facilities in urban slums in India. Collectively, these facilities will have 1200+ toilets, bathrooms, spaces for washing clothes, and will benefit 60,000+ people. The project started in February 2012 and will last for 16-19 months at the end of which these toilets will be operational.

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