Beacon Ahead Institute – Improving quality of life through Innovation

Quotes01 — "Together we work towards dignity and safety; using available materials for a life healthier and easier."
- Madhu Katkar, Chairperson
Beacon AHEAD

Quotes02 — "Earlier we used to cough a lot due to the smoke from the huge cookstoves while preparing meals for 400 students daily. After the Beacon AHEAD team ladies built the newer large smokeless cookstoves, we now can work for hours in the kitchen without coughing as there is no smoke, the railings in front of the cookstoves protect us from getting burns while cooking and the clean burning cookstoves are having a huge impact on our respiratory health.
- Cooks who benefitted from clean burning cookstoves installed in their School Kitchen

Quotes03 — "We are happy to integrate SE200 with the training and support provided by Beacon Ahead Institute, Hyderabad to provide safe drinking water to all the families as a pilot project in Kurupam tribal mandal of Andhra Pradesh to cover 10 villages. This can be replicated across other areas based on its standardization, affordability and success."
- Mr. P. Chinnathataiah
Director-Social Security (IKP)
Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP)

Quotes04 — "Beacon AHEAD Institute uniquely addresses community needs among underprivileged populations, by developing useful products and services Made in India. We work with people to design things that would improve well-being, food production, etc. In the process, people learn to be more creative and skillful, and to help conserve resources and the environment."
- Jane Verrall, Product Design Lead
Beacon AHEAD

Quotes05 — "Water is one among the basic needs.
Provision of safe drinking water is mandatory for any governance.
The SE200 pilot project initiated by Zilla Samakhya, Beacon AHEAD Institute and Grameena Punarnirmana Kendram is step in this direction with the support from SERP and DRDA, Vizianagaram. The converging efforts are directed towards benefitting the most deserving sections of the population."
- Mr. Vasudeva
Joint Director: Medical and Helath Dept
Former Project Director, DRDA-Vizianagaram

Quotes06 — "Drawing inspiration from Nature, developing multifunctional, effective, affordable and user- friendly innovative products and services that fulfil basic needs of people and/or communities, forms the very nucleus of BEACON AHEAD."
- Priyam Varma, CEO
Beacon AHEAD

Quotes07 — "The utilization of chemicals is completely absent in the operation of the SE200 device and salt is commonly available in every household. It is very safe to use the device and is accessible and affordable by the communities. The people need not go too far to fetch safe drinking water. The device is easy to use and on the whole it is simply superb."
- Beneficiary of SE 200 water treatment device

This year we are building many worm-composting BEST Toilets, adding toilets to schools, and repairing more Aanganwadi Centres:

1. We continue to build Beacon Earthworm Sewage Treatment (BEST) toilets in Bihar:

At Beacon AHEAD Institute, we are promoting an innovative new technology for on-site treatment of waste namely eco-friendly toilets and sewage treatment plants are being powered by Nature’s own super stars: Earthworms!

Earthworms in a worm bed above a filter media bed combine to create a very powerful and versatile filter for human waste and sewage.

Beacon AHEAD built over 100 “Beacon Earthworm Sewage Treatment” Toilets (or simply “BEST Toilets”) in North Bihar. These toilets include a small bio-filter which includes earthworms in one layer. The human solid waste in the toilets is converted into worm compost in about 12 hours. Urine and water are treated in the bio-filter layers below the worm bed. Every day, on-site treatment of human waste leads to better health, better air quality and better safety.

The photos below show completed toilets being handed over to many really deserving families in North Bihar. Click on any photo, to learn more about these amazing toilets:

2. Building Toilets in Schools with Shakthi Hormann Pvt. Ltd.'s CSR team

This year, we installed worm-composting toilets in Primary and High schools near Hyderabad, India, with the help of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team of Shakthi Hormann Pvt. Ltd. The existing toilets in the schools were in poor shape, and some were unusable.

Beacon AHEAD Institute enthusiastically built 8 worm-composting toilets. We also added urinals for the boys, as well as handwashing stations, and a lunch table. We also repaired two existing toilets for the teachers to use, and added water pumps and water tanks to ensure that the toilets, urinals and handwashing stations would all have a good supply of water to use.

With the permission of school officials, and generous support from the CSR team of Shakti Hormann Pvt. Ltd, Beacon AHEAD was able to provide good sanitary and hygienic facilities for hundreds of students to use. The photos below show one of the three areas in which we built toilets for these schools:

3. Repairing Aanganwadi Centres

An Aanganwadi (or ICDS) Centre is a Pre-school and Health Care Centre for 0 to 6 year old children. Many of the older Aanganwadi Centres are not being used, because they need repairs.

Beacon AHEAD Institute highly values education, especially a strong start in early years, which leads to a lifelong love of learning.

So with the permission of government officials, we are repairing and rennovating Aanganwadi Centres.

Click on the photos below, to learn about some of the innovative features that we are adding to these schools: